Report: 3G Users Up To 100 Million, And Growing

More than 100 million mobile phone subscribers have signed up for 3G, enabling the wireless technology to reach an important "critical mass," said a Strategy Analytics report on Thursday.

Some 70 million subscribers have signed up for WCDMA technologies, while about 30 million are using CDMA2000 EV-DO solutions. Other market researchers have noted that EV-DO started its marketing push later than the WCDMA service providers.

"Much of this success is due to the strong pushes by influential carriers like NTTDoCoMo, Hutchison 3G and SK Telecom," said Sara Harris in a statement "and more recently Vodafone and Verizon Wireless, who have worked hard to drive 3G uptake among their subscribers." Harris is the senior analyst who authored the report.

The market research firm said the U.S. market is expected to grow rapidly next year when Cingular Wireless – the largest U.S. mobile phone provider – deploys its HSDPA technology.