LTE / 4G connections will pass 100 million this week

Telecom Lead India: The number of LTE connections will pass 100 million this week, according to 4G Americas.

Out of this, 57 million LTE connections will be in the U.S. and Canada alone.

At the end of 2012, there were 68 million LTE connections. Reaching the 100 million mark this week represents an increase of nearly 50 percent in five months.

4G / LTE are connections forecast to reach 134 million connections in 2013.

By early 2018, there will be 1 billion LTE connections.

There are 172 operators in 70 countries with LTE networks and more than 250 commercial LTE networks are expected by the end of this year.

“Canada and the U.S. continue to outpace the world in LTE connections with a hefty 57 percent of all LTE connections,” stated Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas.

20 Latin American operators have commercially deployed LTE networks and the number of connections in the region is quickly increasing.

Globally, there are 172 commercial LTE networks today. The industry is expecting that there will be 250 commercial LTE networks by the end of 2013.

As per the current estimates, wireless operators have committed for over 450 LTE deployments.

North America’s LTE connections increased from 38 million at the end of 2012 to 57 million LTE connections as of May 2013 with 57 percent global market share.

Latin America is one of the fastest growing LTE markets. There are 20 commercial LTE networks in 9 countries. The region will have 2 million LTE connections at the end of 2013.

In a March 2013 report, Infonetics Research said FDD-LTE was the biggest driver for smartphone growth in the final quarter of 2012, with unit growth of 151 percent.

Julien Blin, directing analyst for consumer electronics and mobile broadband at Infonetics Research, said: “TDD-LTE smartphones are also ramping fast, albeit from a much smaller base, despite a temporary dip in growth in the 4th quarter. In 2012, 5 times as many W-CDMA/HSPA smartphones shipped as LTE smartphones. By 2015 we expect LTE smartphones to overtake W-CDMA/HSPA.”

Infonetics expects the number of global mobile broadband subscribers (phone and PC) to grow from 1.2 billion in 2012 to close to 3 billion by 2017.

According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, shipments of 4G-capable smartphones are expected to grow by more than 400 percent in 2013.

Earlier this year, Maxis became the first operator in Malaysia to launch LTE (4G) services, which it claims is capable of providing up to 5 to 10 times faster download speeds than its 3G data services, while other operators such as Celcom and DiGi have announced their intentions to rollout LTE plans in 2013.

IDC expects competition in the 4G space to intensify and demand for LTE-enabled smartphones to significantly increase towards the second half of 2013, when LTE networks from all three major mobile operators are expected to be up and running.

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