BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA announced that China Telecom has joined the GSMA. On Wednesday, 17 February, the GSMA and China Telecom held a signing ceremony to commemorate their membership. China Telecom is one of the world’s largest CDMA operators and will begin the commercial deployments of LTE (Long-Term Evolution) as early as 2010.

“With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together. We are delighted that China Telecom has joined the GSMA, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA. “The rapid rise in demand for Mobile Broadband devices, applications and services is driving both GSM and CDMA operators to evolve their network infrastructures and embrace new, cutting-edge technologies, and LTE is widely regarded as the Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally.”

“As the largest state-owned operator in China, China Telecom is very excited to join the GSMA, which will enable us to extend our reach and network across the worldwide mobile ecosystem,” said Mr. Cao Lei, Director of Technology, China Telecom.

More than 74 mobile operators from around the world have committed to plans, trials or deployments for LTE, with many more commitments expected to be announced over the coming year. The world’s first commercial LTE network was launched at the end of 2009 in Sweden by TeliaSonera, with NTT DoCoMo in Japan on track to join China Telecom and Verizon Wireless in deploying commercial LTE services by the end of 2010. LTE is expected to experience substantial growth over the next three years with research firm Infonetics predicting the number of global LTE connections to exceed 72 million by 2013**.

Notes to Editors

** LTE Infrastructure and Subscribers Report, Infonetics Research, 2009.

Photos of the signing ceremony are available at http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/media_room/green_media_centre.htm

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com.