GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) in its latest update of the Evolution to LTE report, notes that a total of 422 operators have commercially launched LTE in 143 countries, a big jump from 106 operators last year. GSA also highlighted that 677 operators (including 422 Operators that has launched LTE) are investing in LTE across 181 countries, of which 39 are conducting field trials.
According to GSA, over 30% of operators are investing in LTE-Advanced system deployments, with a total of 88 operators, i.e. over 20% of all LTE operators, having commercially launched LTE-Advanced service in 45 countries. Out of this, 15 LTE-Advanced networks support Category 4 devices (above 100 Mbps up to 150 Mbps peak downlink speed) while 73 networks support Category 6 devices (above 150 Mbps up to 300 Mbps).
At the same time, GSA's report confirms that 103 operators are investing in VoLTE deployments, trials or studies across 49 countries from which 25 operators from 16 countries have commercially launched VoLTE-based HD voice service, compared to just 3 launched in March 2014. The VoLTE rollout will be supported by increasing number of devices supporting the technology. GSA announced last month that 219 VoLTE-capable devices (including carrier and frequency variants) including 198 smartphones are currently available in the market place..
Alan Hadden, VP of Research, GSA
83% of LTE-Advanced networks support Category 6 and the majority (37) support the top rate of 300 Mbps. Several operators are trialling LTE-Advanced technology capable of supporting Category 9 (above 300 Mbps up to 450 Mbps) devices and beyond.
