LTE is gaining momentum fast, according to a recent report by ABI Research, which claims there will be 16 million mobile LTE subscribers by the end of this year.
LTE networks are currently running in a dozen countries, and as of March, 100 LTE-ready devices were on the market, according to Global Mobile Suppliers Association figures, with 205 million LTE devices expected to ship in 2014.
While LTE is currently the cutting edge of mobile technology, it’s not restricted to developed countries. For instance, TeliaSonera has begun rolling out coverage in Uzbekistan. Uzbek operator UCell was awarded a 4G license in July 2010, and ZTE helped the operator to roll out LTE coverage to its 5.4 million subscribers. Monthly fees for the service start at $50 per month.
In Germany, T-Mobile’s LTE service, called “Call & Surf Via Funk,” is priced at $53 per month in districts where xDSL fixed-broadband services are limited. The end-user is entitled to a fixed telephony line and an LTE connection, using a Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.-manufactured wireless router offering download speeds of up to 3 megabits per second.
In Japan, NTT DoCoMo Inc.s’ LTE service, branded “Xi” (and pronounced “Crossy”) spans the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas and population coverage stands at 7% with the use of 1,000 base stations. DoCoMo says it aims to attain 70% coverage relying on 35,000 base stations by 2014, with monthly tariffs running between $12 and $79.
ABI Research believes the key to LTE’s success and the main driver from 3G to 4G will be smartphones, but currently only 13% of LTE-ready devices are smartphones or tablets. This, however, is expected to change significantly over the coming years, with the prediction that handheld devices will make up 72% of the LTE market by 2014.
“In the U.S., people are actively looking for 4G as a handset feature, spurred by heavy marketing of 4G smartphones,” noted research director Phil Solis.
“Sprint’s success with WiMAX smartphones is an indicator of the scale Verizon Wireless and AT&T can achieve with LTE smartphones this year,” he added.
