Telecom Lead America: 1.6 billion 4G / LTE connections (excluding M2M) worldwide will generate over 40 percent of service revenues by 2017.
Interestingly, 1.6 billion 4G / LTE connections will be 18 percent of the total market.
More countries will join South Korea, the USA and Japan in pushing the LTE technology aggressively into the smartphone market.
There were 88 million connections on LTE networks at the end of 2012.
Strategy Analytics predicts that this number will grow to 322 million in 2013 and 1.6 billion in 2017.
LTE will overtake WCDMA in 2016 to become the largest revenue-generating technology in the wireless market, according to Strategy Analytics.
“The iPhone 5 helped propel the market forward in Q4 2012, but, due to its regionally focused frequency band choices, will create a short-term phenomenon of more LTE devices than connections on LTE networks,” said Phil Kendall, Director of the Wireless Operator Strategies service and author of the report.
Apple iPhone 5 has put further weight behind the increasingly strong support for LTE networks at 1800MHz, which will contribute to a doubling of global LTE coverage from 11 percent of the world’s population at the end of 2012 to 22 percent by end 2013.
“Early adopter usage profiles and some premium pricing by operators creates an attractive revenue picture for LTE services in the medium term. Combined with strong device volumes and network expansion, LTE will overtake WCDMA in 2016 to become the largest revenue-generating technology in the wireless market,” said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, director of Strategy Analytics Mobile Broadband Opportunities service.
