GSA confirms 948 LTE user devices announced by 100 manufacturers in latest Status of the LTE Ecosystem report
July 5, 2013: The latest update to the ‘Status of the LTE Ecosystem’ report published by the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) confirms that 100 manufacturers have announced 948 LTE-enabled user devices, including frequency and carrier variants.
531 new LTE user devices were launched in the past year while the number of manufacturers increased by almost 50% in this period.
Smartphones continue as the largest LTE device category with almost 4 times as many products compared to the situation in July 2012. LTE connected tablets and personal hotspots are the other fast growing product segments.
The GSA report considered devices that are designed to operate on the FDD and/or TDD modes of the LTE system and their main characteristics, and identified the fallback technologies that are incorporated for when subscribers move outside LTE coverage (i.e. access to HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+, EV-DO, or TD-SCDMA systems).
658 LTE devices can operate on HSPA networks, including 302 products that support 42 Mbps DC-HSPA+ capabilities, while 243 LTE devices can operate on EV-DO systems.
Most of the 948 LTE devices operate in the FDD mode. However, 200 devices can operate using the LTE TDD mode. LTE TDD devices are available in all form factors including smartphones, dongles, routers, personal hotspots, embedded modules, and mobile tablets. Bands 38 (2.6 GHz) and band 40 (2.3 GHz) have the largest choice of terminals today.
The report confirms that the most popular FDD bands are:
2600 MHz band 7 = 324 devices
1800 MHz band 3 = 284 devices
800 MHz band 20 = 243 devices
700 MHz bands 12, 17 = 224 devices
2100 MHz band 1 = 215 devices
700 MHz band 13 = 211 devices
AWS band 4 = 203 devices
900 MHz band 8 = 105 devices
850 MHz band 5 = 80 devices
Several products support more than one band.
Alan Hadden, President of the GSA said: “The choice of smartphones and their usage has increased sharply over the past year. LTE is becoming a standard feature in mid-tier devices. The report also confirms that the number of LTE devices supporting 42 Mbps DC-HSPA+ almost tripled in the past year, ensuring mobile broadband customers benefit from investments that many LTE operators are making to boost the performance, capacity and efficiencies of their HSPA networks.”
The GSA Status of the LTE Ecosystem report (July 5, 2013) is available as a free download to registered site users via the link at http://www.gsacom.com/gsm_3g/info_papers
(Registration page for new site users http://www.gsacom.com/php/register_form)
Numerous charts, maps etc. confirming the progress of mobile broadband developments including LTE are also available at http://www.gsacom.com/news/statistics.php4
ABOUT GSA
GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) represents GSM/EDGE, WCDMA-HSPA and LTE suppliers, providing reports, facts, analysis and information explaining market developments and trends. GSA-organized seminars facilitate enhanced dialog between operators, members and developer communities. Through its website GSA supports a global community which includes over 58,000 registered users.
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