Telecom industry association 5G Americas today announced LTE mobile subscriber data for the first quarter of 2016 and forecast for 2016 and 2020.
LTE connections in North America reached 253 million which covers more than half or 57 percent of all mobile connections in the region. This data compares to regional markets of Oceania & Asia Pacific with 33 percent and Western Europe with 26 percent market share for LTE. Penetration of LTE in the U.S. was 73 percent based on the country’s population of about 322 million.
69 commercial LTE networks deployed in U.S. and Canada
253 million LTE connections as of March 2016 for net gain of 67 million new LTE customers in the last 12 months and a 36 percent growth rate
7 commercial LTE-Advanced networks
90.1 million HSPA connections for net loss of 12.3 million HSPA connections year-over-year with the trend of upgrades to LTE
LTE is forecast to reach 391 million connections at the end of 2020 (forecast does not include M2M)
Latin America
Latin America and the Caribbean has the second fastest growth rate for LTE worldwide in the 1Q 2016, with a rate of 268 percent compared to the leading region of Central and Southern Asia with 352 percent growth.
77 commercial LTE networks in 30 countries
69 million LTE connections as of March 2016; growth of 268 percent year-over-year
332 million HSPA connections; 47 million added year-over-year
2 LTE-Advanced networks
LTE is forecast to reach 277 million connections at the end of 2020 (forecast does not include M2M)
Global LTE & LTE-Advanced
LTE has doubled in connections worldwide to 1.29 billion at the end of 1Q 2016 compared to 645 million at 1Q 2015.
LTE-Advanced is gaining momentum globally; currently 118 networks in 57 countries have deployed the technology, more than doubling from 54 networks in 35 countries at year-end 2014.
1.29 billion LTE connections; more than double 645 million at March 2015
LTE connections forecast to reach close to four billion by year-end 2020 (forecast does not include M2M)
LTE global market share forecast to reach 45 percent by 2020
118 LTE-Advanced commercial networks in 57 countries
7.4 billion total cellular connections worldwide
LTE is forecast at 1.6 billion connections by the end of 2016 increasing to 3.8 billion connections by the end of 2020 when LTE connections will exceed global UMTS/HSPA or 3G connections for the first time.
