a b s t r a c t A study concerning the propagation of free non-axisymmetric waves in a homogeneous piezoelectric cylinder of transversely isotropic material with axial polarization is carried out on the basis of the linear theory of elasticity and linear electro-mechanical coupling. The solution of the three dimensional equations of motion and quasi-electrostatic equation is given in terms of seven mechanical and three electric potentials. The characteristic equations are obtained by the application of the mechanical and two types of electric boundary conditions at the surface of the piezoelectric cylinder. A novel method of displaying dispersion curves is described in the paper and the resulting dispersion curves are presented for propagating and evanescent waves for PZT-4 and PZT-7A piezoelectric ceramics for circumferential wave numbers m = 1, 2, and 3. It is observed that the dispersion curves are sensitive to the type of the imposed boundary conditions as well as to the measure of the electro-mechanical coupling of the material.