Last year, global LTE-related subscriptions topped 229.7 million. It’s a lofty number for sure, but one that will appear dismal in comparison to the numbers projected for 2019.
Said subscriptions will continually grow at a CAGR of 43.6% between 2013 and 2019, ABI projects, to exceed 2 billion.
By the close of 2013, LTE-TDD subscribers accounted for 5% of the LTE market, while 94.2% of the LTE market was taken up by LTE-FDD.
“Among the LTE subscription growth, Asia-Pacific contributes the most with a 49% market share. The second greatest contributor is North America with an 18% share,” observes Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research. “The large population base in Asia combined with rapid LTE network deployment and cost-competitive smartphones has accelerated the remarkable subscriber adoption.”
All the major mobile operators are showing their commitments to carrier aggregation capable LTE-Advanced technology, which can better handle the anticipated explosion in mobile data traffic with greater bandwidth.
ABI Research forecasts that LTE-Advanced subscribers will grow to 750 million in 2019 accounting for 37.3% of overall LTE subscribers.
Not surprisingly, North America will be the most aggressive LTE-Advanced market, followed by Asia-Pacific and Western Europe.
