Global LTE connections rose 81 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, according to figures from Ovum that were reported by the 5G Americas trade organization.
“LTE continues its tremendous uptake by customers in North America as subscribers reap the benefits of fast data speeds and ‘everywhere connectivity’ as wireless carriers deploy new LTE-Advanced features,” stated Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.
Some highlights:
- LTE’s penetration rate as a percentage of connections to the population of 360 million in North America reached 79 percent. This penetration rate compares to Western Europe at 43 percent penetration and Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia with 41 percent penetration. In North America, LTE penetration is expected to pass 100 percent in 2019.
- Latin America and the Caribbean added 59.4 million new LTE connections year-over-year in the third quarter — more than doubling the region’s LTE connections with a 154 percent growth rate.
- 1 million 5G connections forecast in 2020 — nearly 50 percent of global 5G connections followed by Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia with 28 percent and Eastern Europe with nearly 19 percent.
- 1.7 billion LTE connections out of a total of 7.5 billion total cellular connections worldwide
- 752 million new LTE subscriptions year-over-year; 81 percent growth
- LTE connections forecast to reach 4.3 billion by year-end 2021 (forecast does not include M2M)
- LTE global market share forecast to reach 52 percent by 2021
