The number of LTE-Advanced networks has reached 100 in 49 countries from 33 in December 2014, according to telecom trade association 4G Americas.
There are seven commercial LTE-Advanced networks deployed in U.S.
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Redzone Wireless in the US and Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus in Canada have made investment in LTE-Advanced networks.
Indian 4G telecoms such as Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India are yet to show interest in making investment in LTE-Advanced.
South Korea deployed the first LTE-Advanced networks in June 2013 and utilized Carrier Aggregation technology feature of LTE-Advanced. Carrier Aggregation technology allows global telecom network operators to utilize disparate spectrum bands to create larger spectrum swaths in order to increase efficiencies and download speeds.
Facts on LTE and LTE-Advanced
Global
430 commercial LTE networks
100 commercial LTE-Advanced networks
907 million total LTE subscribers; expected forecast of 3.6 billion by 2020
North America
68 commercial LTE networks deployed in U.S. and Canada
219 million total LTE subscribers; expected forecast of 392 million by 2020
Latin America
71 commercial LTE networks in 25 countries
35 million total LTE subscribers; expected forecast of 259 million by 2020
“We expect almost all operators to deploy LTE-Advanced which has a vigorous roadmap of technological innovation,” said Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas.
5G will not impact LTE-Advanced
5G will not impact and LTE-Advanced will evolve through LTE-Advanced Pro. 5G technologies will interoperate with existing LTE-Advanced networks to provide subscribers with a seamless mobile broadband experience.
In October, the global standardization group, 3GPP, announced a new technology advancement moniker for the evolution beyond LTE-Advanced called LTE-Advanced Pro. This will be a stepping stone for future network needs as well as the 5G ecosystem.
The telecom research report said that 5G development is the focus of much of the industry; however, LTE-Advanced will continue to evolve with creative new features to serve customers for many years before 5G networks are commercially deployed in 2020 and beyond.
Baburajan K
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