It's A Prepaid World After All

Yahoo! News picks up an article from Investor's Business Daily that writes "except for the U.S., Japan, South Korea and France, most wireless phone users around the world go the prepaid route." According to Yankee Group, the prepaid market is 66 percent in Europe, while Asia is more than 70 percent and Latin America is roughly 90 percent.

The article offers a lengthy analysis of the prepaid market and outlines the opportunities and challenges faced by carriers trying to service and profit from this growing market. Yankee Group predicts the worldwide wireless market will grow to 2.25 billion subscribers by the end of 2006, with prepaid customers accounting for 62 percent of the market. In the U.S., Merrill Lynch expects the prepaid market will double over the next few years, accounting for more than 20% of all U.S. wireless users by the end of 2009.