LTE subscriptions are expected to touch more than 1 billion worldwide by the end of 2015, according to GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association.

The number of LTE subscriptions worldwide on 30 June 2015 was 755 million, GSA quoting Ovum statistics.

The global telecom industry added 441 million LTE subscriptions in the past year, equivalent to 140 percent annual growth.

LTE achieved 10.44 percent share of the worldwide subs total for all mobile technologies.

GSA said LTE subscriptions increased by 113.5 million in Q2 2015 against 74.4 million increase in the case for 3G/WCDMA-HSPA. GSM subscriptions fell by over 98 million in the second quarter.

Asia Pacific increased its share of global LTE subscriptions to 51.2 percent. North America has 198 million LTE subscriptions and remains the second largest LTE market, though its share reduced to 26.2 percent of the global total compared with 42.4 percent a year earlier.

Europe has around 16 percent and the total number of LTE subscriptions across Western Europe markets has passed 100 million.

America and Caribbean region has over 22.5 million LTE subscriptions and over 17.2 million higher than a year ago, equivalent to 324 percent annual growth.

Middle East added more than 1 million LTE subscriptions monthly. The region has 23.7 million LTE subscriptions and an annual growth of 194 percent. Russia has almost 3x the number of LTE subscriptions compared to one year earlier.

By June 2015 China had passed 225 million LTE subscriptions, adding 63.5 million in Q2.

The GSA did not mention about India, where Bharti Airtel is ramping up its 4G network and Reliance Jio Infocomm is expected to launch 4G services by the end of 2015.

422 operators have commercially launched LTE systems in 143 countries till July 2015. There will be 460 commercially launched LTE networks by end 2015.

Over 30 percent of operators are investing in LTE-Advanced system deployments, with the commercialisation of carrier aggregation the first feature to be exploited. 88 operators, i.e. over 20 percent of all LTE operators, have commercially launched LTE-Advanced service in 45 countries.

15 LTE-Advanced networks support Category 4 devices (above 100 Mbps up to 150 Mbps peak downlink speed) while 73 networks support Category 6 devices (above 150 Mbps up to 300 Mbps). The number of LTE and LTE-Advanced subscriptions is expected to pass the 3G/WCDMA-HSPA global total in 2020.

Baburajan K
[email protected]