The size of the 4G LTE handsets market will increase 231 percent to 676 million units in 2015 from 204 million in 2014, said ABI Research.
The total number of LTE connected devices shipped worldwide will exceed 1.89 billion units by end 2019.
READ ALSO: Top 10 4G LTE markets based on telecom subscriptions
The 4G smartphone growth will be supported by commercial LTE networks that will reach 350 by Q4 2014. LTE connections are likely to surpass 2.3 billion by 2020. North America continues to lead the world with the largest number of LTE subscribers at 115 million followed by Asia Pacific which achieved 95 million LTE connections at the end of March 2014, said 4G Americas, a telecom industry body.
READ ALSO: LTE infrastructure revenue to reach $20 bn in 2015: Infonetics
Earlier, IDC said smartphone with screen size between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference in India. Consumers need higher screen size phone to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in 2015 in India.
“With the proliferation of larger screen smart devices driving up the insatiable appetites for content and faster speeds, ABI Research estimates that there will be 350 commercial LTE networks forecasted by 4Q 2014,” said Cheri Wong, research analyst at ABI Research.
Speed of data will impact the demand for 4G smartphones. Broadband speeds will reach 42 Mbps by 2018, up from 16 Mbps in 2013. 55 percent of broadband connections will be faster than 10 Mbps by 2018. Average broadband speeds in Japan and South Korea will approach 100 Mbps by 2018, said the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption for 2013 to 2018.
Ericsson, SingTel and Qualcomm demonstrated a downlink speed of 260 Mbps in their FDD/TDD LTE carrier aggregation trials. The first ever TDD-FDD LTE trial took place in February 2014 between Korea Telecom and SK Telecom, with assistance from Nokia Networks.
“While commercial devices supporting FDD/TDD carrier aggregation will only debut in 2015, this has not deterred global operators like Vodafone from rolling out LTE-Advanced technology using carrier aggregation to supplement its existing LTE mobile services,” said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director for 4G/5G.
The growing demand for data also emphasizes the need for additional bandwidth to support the massive strain on operator networks which can be alleviated through the refarming of unused spectrum. LTE-Advanced is now commercial on 20 networks in 14 countries.
ABI Research says $970 million 4G TD-LTE deal between Nokia Networks and China Mobile is one of the examples for the demand for TD-LTE technology.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
