A research by Ovum, a leading global technology research and advisory firm showed that LTE technology connected 33% of the total 391 million mobile connections in North America, making the region the leader in terms of LTE's market share. The research, reported by 4G Americas, says that as at end of last quarter, there were 127 million LTE connections in the region.To date, 49 commercial LTE networks have been deployed in U.S. and Canada.
According to the research, worldwide, there are 280 million LTE subscriptions, which make up 4% of the total 7 billion mobile connections globally. Based on these figures, North America makes up 45 percent of all LTE connections worldwide, followed by Asia Pacific with a share of 36 percent and Western Europe at a share of more than 13 percent. North America also leads in terms of LTE penetration with almost 36 percent of the population compared to Western Europe at nearly 8 percent and Asia Pacific with nearly 3 percent LTE penetration, said 4G Americas.
4G Americas also disclosed that overall, annual mobile connections in North America grew at 5% and forecasts that there will be 139 million LTE connections by this year end and nearly 200 million LTE connections by year end 2016.
For Latin America, 4G Americas said that LTE is picking up with 44 commercial networks in 18 countries, and rapid growth in the number of new LTE connections which reached 4.8 million as at the end of last quarter. The figure is expected to grow to 6 million by end of the year. 4G added that the region recorded an overall mobile market growth of 3 percent and a growth of 58 percent in the mobile broadband segment, with Brazil leading other states with a share of 68% of LTE subscriptions. Latin America has about 320 commercial LTE networks and is expected to grow to 350 commercial LTE networks by the end of 2014, added 4G Americas.
4G Americas will share more on LTE-Advanced at the 4G World and CTIA MobileTalks at Super Mobility Week on September 9 and 10 respectively.
"Innovations in regulatory policy, new advanced LTE networks with leading technology and smartphone penetration of 66 percent have resulted in a tremendous confluence of subscriber demand for mobile broadband data applications and services in the U.S and Canada. The benefits of the 3GPP technologies in the North American region have provided not only leadership for our region in the mobile economy, but significant opportunities in the convergence with computing for the Internet of Things."
- Chris Pearson, President, 4G Americas
“LTE is quickly becoming well-established around the world with networks available in more than 100 countries spanning all global regions today. At the same time, there are still plenty more LTE launches to come, with at least 30 more operators planning to launch yet this year. While LTE subscriptions grew 179 percent year-over-year from 2012 to 2013, they are still forecasted to grow 95 percent from 2013 to 2014 to reach 386 million subscriptions."
- Kristin Paulin, Senior Analyst, Ovum
