Verizon, AT&T, NTT Docomo, Sprint and SK Telecom are the top 4G LTE mobile operator in the world based on their subscriber base till March 2014.

This was disclosed by Kaoru Kato, president & CEO of NTT Docomo, quoting a survey report of WCIS.

American telecom operators such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have not yet disclosed their 4G LTE subscriber base.

NTT Docomo on Friday said it has 21.97 million LTE subscribers in Japan.

China Mobile 4G LTE subscriber base has reached 2.79 million. On the other hand, China Mobile’s 3G subscriber base touched 224.98 million after adding 33.35 million 3G customers in Q1 2014.

Also read: China Mobile Q1 2014 result: revenue up 7.8%, profit dip 9.4% due to OTT challenges

NTT Docomo and LTE

Also read: NTT Docomo shares LTE strategies for 2014 and Capex plans

NTT Docomo has achieved this position in the LTE market after executing a long term strategy.

NTT Docomo net income has decreased by 26.3 billion yen to 464.7 billion yen. Its data revenue has increased by 121 billion yen in fiscal 2014.

NTT Docomo says 60 percent of the handset sale is from smartphones. It has 24.35 million smartphone users and LTE users account for 79 percent of the total smartphone users. Smartphone users increased 30 percent and LTE subscribers account for 80 percent of the total.

Voice ARPU decreased by 180 yen but data ARPU increased by 130 yen.

NTT Docomo will install another 40,000 LTE base stations to construct the strongest LTE network with 99 percent area coverage.

Though the total Capex will be down, LTE investment will be expanding. LTE will account for two-thirds of the expected 690 billion yen Capex.

Baburajan K
[email protected]