A newly released report from Informa Telecoms & Media indicates that 2007-2008 witnessed significant growth in the prepaid mobile services market.
At the end of last year, there were nearly 2.33 billion prepaid subscriptions worldwide, of which two percent of subscriptions accounted for prepaid WCDMA accesses.
According to the research, by 2013 there will be approximately 3.93 billion prepaid subscriptions, generating concomitant revenues of over $382 billion.
The consultancy predicts that from 2007-2013, growth might slow down to a global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over nine percent; Still, the prepaid market will account for over eighty percent of new mobile subscriptions.
It's expected that the key drivers of future growth of the prepaid mobile services market will be very-low-income customers in developing markets.
In other next-generation wireless news, Alcatel-Lucent today announced a €22 million deal with South African mobile operator Vodacom SA to upgrade its existing 3G network.
The goal is to boost the capacity and coverage of Vodacom's network so that the wireless carrier can offer its customers a wide range of advanced next-generation mobile broadband services.
The 3G wireless network will be based on Alcatel-Lucent UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and HSDPA/HSUPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/High Speed Uplink Packet Access) technologies.
