Telecom New Zealand Becomes 13th Country to Select cdmaOne in Asia Pacific Region

Spanish | Portugues

Costa Mesa, CA, August 4, 1999 -- On the heels of an announcement made by Telecom New Zealand, the principal telecommunications supplier in New Zealand, the CDMA Development Group (CDG) today announced that cdmaOne* is continuing its sweep across the Asia Pacific region. This recent decision by Telecom New Zealand continues the rapid progress and global expansion of cdmaOne, now commercially available from 72 global wireless operators in 29 countries, with more than 35 countries expected live by the end-of-year 2000.

"Today's announcement from Telecom New Zealand highlights that cdmaOne is the digital technology of choice for moving into the mobile Internet era, offering operators and their subscribers advantages compared to other technologies," said Perry LaForge, executive director for the CDG. "The move to cdmaOne in New Zealand offers footprint expansion and international roaming opportunities, and provides Telecom New Zealand with considerable technical and financial benefits to meet customer requirements for high-speed mobile data services and Internet access."

cdmaOne offers operators significant capacity, coverage, and quality advantages that no other digital technology can match, coupled with a seamless migration path to third generation (3G) services. Operators around the world are offering advanced high-speed data and Internet services today, and cdmaOne is supporting the fastest data speeds available at 64 KBPS, with 1XRTT set to support 144 KBPS in the near future. Operators like Telecom New Zealand are selecting cdmaOne to provide a seamless growth path to future 3G services.

LaForge concluded, "Global operators clearly recognize the value that cdmaOne offers now and into the future, and this has resulted in its continued worldwide expansion throughout 1998 and 1999. Even in a period marked by an economic downturn, cdmaOne expanded its reach significantly in Asia Pacific and Latin American countries. With the economic recovery in Asia now on the horizon, the future of cdmaOne is better than ever."