LTE growth of 3400% predicted
LTE is set to be the dominant new mobile network technology of the future, growing by 3,400 per cent between now and 2015, according to a report from In-Stat. This huge growth will be driven by networks looking to accommodate users wanting to connect to the internet at any time and on any device, according to the report author Chris Kissel, an analyst at In-Stat.
More than half of all new network deployments are LTE based, while the US will see the biggest increase in LTE based subscriptions, with growth of 2,100 per cent from 2011 to 2015.
However, 3G will remain dominant during the transition period with WCDMA technology catering for 26 per cent of this. Conversely, 2G subscriber numbers worldwide will peak in 2012 and will decline from then.
“Although there are regional variations in the adoption of cellular services, due in part to current available technology, LTE will clearly be the 4G service of choice moving forward,” says Kissel. “3G will remain the predominant service subscription, also with robust growth, but over the next five years things will trend toward LTE as 4G service availability is ramped up.”
Recently, Telefónica in Germany said it would launch LTE on 1 July, while AT&T in the US is set to launch its LTE network this summer.
