Djibouti Telecom Joins GSMA

LONDON -- The GSM community celebrated another milestone in August as membership of the GSM Association (GSMA) broke through the 200-country barrier.

The Association - the global trade organisation for GSM operators - now numbers some 592 operator members in 203 countries with more than 909 million customers worldwide.

New countries joining the GSM community recently include the Bahamas, Kiribati, Comoros, Guatemala, Djibouti (the 200th country), and Timor Leste (the 201st), Honduras (202) and Guyana (203). 99.7% of the world's population lives in countries that have selected GSM.

Welcoming the news, CEO and Member of the GSMA Board, Rob Conway described GSM as the world's biggest commercial co-operative and a mobile telephony eco-system.

"No one country, and no one company owns GSM," he said. "It is an open standard that is providing service to approaching one billion people globally and employment and opportunity to millions.

"The strength of the GSM eco-system lies in the removal of barriers to market, the economies of scale for manufacturers, the return for investors, the opportunities for application developers, the ability to evolve into 3rd Generation (3GSM) mobile services, and the sheer reach and reliability of the service provided to users.

"It is a phenomenal package, unrivalled by any technology anywhere in the world," he concluded.

GSM Association