LTE will enjoy sunstantial growth in the next few years, allowing the
technology to account for 10 percent of worldwide mobile subscribers by 2015.
Worldwide subscribers to 4G LTE at the end of 2011 will number a projected 11.6
million, up a superheated 4,062 percent from just 300,000 in 2010. Another
round of explosive growth is anticipated for 2012 when the technology increases
its subscriber rolls by an impressive 442 percent to hit 62.8 million.
Growth in the three years after 2012 will slow down somewhat but will remain
robust, at 214 percent in 2013, 105 percent in 2014 and 84 percent in 2015.
By 2015, LTE will command a total of 744.2 million users, equivalent to 10
percent of the approximately 7.3 billion total mobile handset subscribers
worldwide, according to IHS iSuppli Smartphones & Converged Devices Market
Tracker report from information and analysis provider IHS.
From fast music downloads, to high-definition video streaming, to multiplayer
gaming, 4G can deliver the required bandwidth required for next-generation
mobile services,” said Francis Sideco, senior principal analyst for wireless
communications at IHS.
The rise of LTE is remarkable for its projected speed of deployment. This speed
is made possible because a common air interface standard now exists to which
the wireless ecosystem can commit in developing next-generation smartphones,
networks and applications. In the past, multiple commercial standards of older
2G and 3G technologies caused the market to fragment, resulting in continuous
air interface transitions that not only bewildered customers but also hindered
industry wide development in general.
Operators, handset manufacturers and even chipset suppliers have moved away
from emphasis on technology. Instead, the focus has shifted to what mobile
devices can do from the standpoint of users.
A host of technical and commercial issues remain that must be addressed by the
operators, according to IHS. In one challenge related to contiguous spectrum
availability, operators are only able to field 10 megahertz (MHz) LTE channels
as opposed to the more ideal and efficient 20MHz options.
Other issues facing operators include the establishment of new business models
as wireless expands its reach past traditional borders into other industries;
designing LTE devices that take advantage of new chipset architectures; and
coping with the highly dynamic environments resulting from all these advances.
By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]
