The 500 millionth LTE subscriber was activated sometime in January 2015. GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirms that LTE reached 497 million subs by December 2014, citing data from Ovum. A total of 290 million LTE subscriptions were gained in the year, equivalent to 140% annual growth. This gives LTE a faster adoption cycle than 3G/WCDMA-HSPA by 21% during the last 6 months of 2014.
Alan Hadden, Vice President of Research, GSA said “LTE subscriptions grew by 115 million in Q4, over 36% higher than 3G/WCDMA-HSPA connections. GSM subscriptions fell by 78.5 million in the same period. We are confident that LTE growth will continue to lead all other mobile systems.”
Some other highlights:
- The APAC region increased its share of connections to 47% by end December 2014 compared to 40% in June 2014.
- North America is the second largest LTE market with 33% of global LTE subscriptions, down from 42.3% in six months previously, while Europe increased its share in the same period from 14.3% to 16% by year end.
- LTE net subscription additions in Q4 2014 were 45% higher than in the previous quarter.
- GSA forecasts there will be at least 450 commercially launched LTE networks globally by end 2015, up from 364 that had entered service by the end of last year, with deployment of LTE-Advanced technologies as a major industry trend in all regions. Further details will be provided in the next Evolution to LTE report to be published by GSA this month.
