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11 Jan 2004

A cell phone technology that dominates Europe is now the fastest-growing standard in North America, according mobile trade organization 3G Americas .

North American use of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard increased 57 percent from June 2002 to June 2003.

That's three times faster than the growth of Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), which has dominated the North American market.

The news is troubling for Qualcomm, Pearson said, because GSM is apparently beginning to challenge CDMA's stranglehold on the North American cell phone market.

GSM has a long way to go, because there are 71 million North American CDMA phones versus GSM's 22 million.

The number of North American GSM subscribers is expected to grow to at least 55 million once Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile USA finish converting their subscribers to GSM.