The so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology has not taken very long to evolve. Just three years after the first deployment of the 4G wireless standard, subscribers are expected to exceed 100 million this year, according to a new report by the research firm IHS.
The report predicts that LTE subscribers will reach 198.1 million in 2013, up 115% from 92.3 million in 2012. This rate is even more impressive when considering LTE started in 2010 with only 612,000, and by 2016, IHS predicts that more than 1 billion people will be using LTE.
At the start, Europe and Asia saw the most LTE activity, but North America drove a lot of the subscriber activity in 2011 and 2012. IHS also found that the majority of LTE adoptions in the last two years came from customers looking to upgrade their smartphones.
The rapid adoption of LTE brings up issues for carriers, device makers and the entire telecom supply chain.
“With LTE emerging as a true global technology standard, its ecosystem now faces both challenges and opportunities,” said Wayne Lam, IHS senior analyst for wireless communications.
Lam counts spectrum fragmentation among the challenges. The previous 3G technology was deployed using relatively few spectrum bands globally, but LTE is currently using more than 40 different frequency spectrums. This means interoperability across multiple carriers and spectrum holdings is not consistent, and it creates a complex landscape for equipment and component suppliers.
On the other side, IHS believes that LTE with its more capable network is also driving innovation, particularly in the development of smartphone features such as touch-screen displays and camera technology as well as a wide range of applications, including live video streaming, voice over IP and realtime multiplayer gaming.
