Year-End 2014: Nearly Half a Billion LTE Connections Worldwide4G Americas reports substantial gains for LTE in North America BELLEVUE, Wash. – March 11, 2015 – 4G Americas, a wireless trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, today announced that LTE reached a new milestone with nearly half a billion connections worldwide at the end of 2014 according to data gathered by Ovum. North America contributed significantly to global LTE connections with 33 percent or 164 million of the total 498 million LTE connections worldwide, although in mid-year the Asia Pacific region surpassed the U.S. and Canada in the top spot in terms of total LTE connections. North America LTE subscriptions represent 40 percent of all mobile connections in North America which compares to the next leading world regional market of Western Europe at nearly 13 percent and Asia with 10 percent market share for LTE. Penetration of LTE in the U.S. with 164 million LTE connections was at 49 percent based on the country’s population of about 318 million. Finally, LTE coverage in the U.S. has achieved more than 300 million of the population (referred to as POPs coverage). This means roughly 94 percent of the U.S. population has access to LTE service. Another mobile broadband metric in the North American market includes 75 percent penetration of smart phones (Chetan Sharma, March 2015). Leading U.S. carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, are looking toward LTE-Advanced to meet the growing demand for advanced data services. By 2020, nearly 60 percent of all LTE subscriptions will be on LTE-Advanced networks according to Ovum.
Latin America Jose Otero, 4G Americas Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, provided examples of how spectrum allocation jump starts mobile broadband advancement. He noted that, “Allocation of spectrum in Argentina and Venezuela catalyzed the deployment of three new LTE networks in these markets. There are several spectrum auctions already announced for this year and we expect at least ten new LTE commercial networks during 2015. In addition, we might see LTE-Advanced expanding to new markets as operators strive to position themselves as innovators.”
Global LTE is currently deployed on 367 networks in 121 countries. LTE-Advanced is also gaining speed globally; currently 54 networks in 35 countries have deployed the technology.
“We are thrilled to see the rapid rise of LTE and LTE-Advanced not only in the Americas, but throughout the world,” added Pearson. “As key stakeholders in the industry continue to drive the advancement of LTE well into the next decade, we are eager to see how LTE innovation will possibly play a key role in providing the mobile broadband foundation for 5G technology in the future.” 4G Americas maintains a current list of LTE deployments in the Americas on its website. For more information and to view a variety of statistical charts on the 3GPP family of technologies, visit www.4gamericas.org. Subscriber and forecast data is from Ovum. About 4G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Mobile Broadband Technology 4G Americas’ Board of Governors members include: Alcatel-Lucent, América Móvil, AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Cisco, CommScope, Entel, Ericsson, HP, Intel, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm, Sprint, T-Mobile US, Inc. and Telefónica. |