VoLTE Launches to Surge in 2015, LTE-A Deployments Continue to Grow Steadily - GSA

According to GSA (Global Mobile Suppliers Association), March this year saw 16 operators launching HD voice service enabled by VoLTE in 7 countries, compared to only 3 launches in March last year. The organization expects commercial VoLTE deployments to surge this year as more Operators jump on the bandwagon to introduce VoLTE. In its last report update released earlier this year, GSA reported that 80 operators in 42 countries, that is 22% of operators, are investing in VoLTE deployments, studies or trials.

The findings which were reported in the latest update of the Evolution to LTE report, unveiled that deployments are continuing in the LTE-A market with 30% of Operators already investing in the carrier aggregation technology as network capacity, efficiencies and peak speeds rise dramatically. 64 operators, almost 1 in 6, have commercially launched LTE-Advanced service in 39 countries, added GSA.

On the LTE front, the report also unveiled that a total of 393 operators have commercially launched the service in 138 countries, with 107 operators expected to follow suit within a year. In its report, GSA raised its year-end forecast of commercially launched LTE networks to 460, citing that a total of 644 operators across 181 countries are investing in the technology. 

The organization also highlighted that the most widely used spectrum for LTE network deployments continues to be 1800 MHz (3GPP band 3). A total of 176 LTE1800 networks, almost 50% higher than a year ago, have been commercially launched across 86 countries. The report highlighted that the 1800 MHz frequency band is used today in 45% of LTE network deployments and continues to dominate the user devices ecosystem with over 43% LTE user terminals supporting this band. GSA added that the next most popular contiguous band for LTE deployments is 2.6 GHz (band 7) and is used in almost 25% of networks.