A new report from Juniper Research predicts that while LTE uptake over the next five years will be swift, the technology will have only a limited global reach and account for a small fraction of the worldwide mobile base.
Juniper predicts LTE networks will garner 428 million customers by 2016, or roughly 6% of the world’s mobile customer base. However, the report added that the rate of LTE network commitments is showing tremendous growth and that it expects LTE base station deployments to hit nearly 1 million by 2014.
Of those customers attracted to LTE services, Juniper said it expects the current domination by enterprise customers will begin to lose share to the consumer market in 2013, with the consumer market accounting for a majority of LTE growth by 2015.
As for the devices connecting to the network, Juniper said it expects smartphones and tablet devices to account for 50% of total LTE subscribers by 2016, gaining initial traction in the enterprise market where high-end data users are more likely to seek out higher-speed networks.
“With LTE being offered as a premium-level service initially, enterprise subscribers will be attracted by the improved data speeds and the service guarantees that will be offered,” said Nitin Bhas, author of the Juniper report. “The emerging factor that will drive consumer take-up later in the forecast and beyond is the embedding of LTE technology in consumer devices.”
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