Global LTE mobile infrastructure revenue will start falling from next year after touching $23.3 billion in 2015, said IHS.

The decline is despite the earlier predictions by GSMA Intelligence suggesting that global 4G connections will grow at more than 30 percent a year (CAGR) from 2014 to 2020. IHS says the 4G market will experience decline in roll outs.

Earlier, the research agency predicted that the size of the LTE infrastructure would be $20 billion in 2015. IHS says LTE mobile infrastructure revenue fell 1 percent quarter on quarter to $6 billion in the first quarter of 2015.

“As we anticipated, we’re reaching the peak of LTE rollouts, and LTE is set to perform at $6 billion a quarter for some time as operators complete their major remaining rollouts,” said Stephane Teral, research director for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at IHS.

2G, 3G mobile infrastructure spending decreased 8 percent sequentially to $11 billion.

The 2G, 3G, 4G mobile infrastructure market rose 4 percent year-over-year in Q1 2015 — driven by unabated TDD LTE activity in China.

 

Meanwhile, GSMA Intelligence in a February 2015 telecom analysis report said that China will overtake America as the largest 4G LTE market this year. China will have 300 million 4G connections by the end of this year. In 2014, China Mobile had 90 million 4G connections, becoming the largest 4G LTE operator in the global telecom market.

In January 2015, the number of live 4G operators stood at 352. The number of 4G connections reached 490 million in 2014. 7 percent of all global mobile connections were running on 4G networks in 2014 against 3 percent in 2013.

In 2015, global 4G connections are forecast to reach 875 million, accounting for 12 percent of total connections. By 2020, 4G is expected to account for more than 30 percent of global connections. 4G networks are expected to cover 63 percent of the global population by this point.

Baburajan K
[email protected]