China Telecom, KDDI, Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm gained membership to the GSMA following their commitment to deploy commercial services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE).

The move is remarkable in the sense that all the three service providers mentioned are CDMA operators.

Qualcomm joined as associate member and will wok with operators to aid the smooth integration of LTE with existing Mobile Broadband technologies.

“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, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, 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 global mobile ecosystem,” said Mr. Cao Lei, Director of Technology, China Telecom.