The number of LTE subscriptions reached 250 million in the first quarter of 2014. Verizon Wireless and AT&T account for 35 percent of global LTE subscriptions.
Verizon had 47.9 million LTE subscriptions and AT&T 38.4 million in the first quarter of 2014, said Ovum.
Ovum said there are seven operators worldwide with more than 10 million total LTE subscriptions. Majority of these operators are either US or Japanese operators.
Korea was the most penetrated LTE market in 1Q14, with a rate of 47 percent of the country population.
The increased availability and affordability of LTE-capable devices is a major growth driver.
Deployments and usage are at an early stage, except for North America, where LTE represented over one-third of mobile broadband usage in Q1 2014.
In emerging markets, LTE take-up is slow as coverage is limited and operators prioritize the high-end and business segments.
LTE in North America
As of March 2014, Verizon covered 93 percent of the US population and AT&T covered 87 percent.
Sprint and T-Mobile are behind these two leaders with coverage.
As of June 2014, Sprint covered 70 percent of the US population. As of July 2014, T-Mobile covered 71 percent.
LTE in Europe
There are 96 LTE networks in service in Europe. The UK leads both Western Europe and all of Europe in LTE subscriptions with over 6 million, while Russia leads Eastern Europe with more than 2 million.
LTE in Asia
As at mid-2014, there were 34 LTE deployments in the Asia Pacific region across 16 markets.
The region saw its mobile broadband market pass the 1 billion subscriptions mark in early 2014.
LTE subscriptions in Asia Pacific increased 102 percent year on year and passed the 100 million mark in mid 2014.
LTE represented just over 9 percent of total mobile broadband subscriptions. Japan, Korea and Australia are the second, third and fourth largest markets in the world respectively and the three combined accounted for 32 percent of the global LTE subscriptions in Q1, said Ovum.
LTE in Middle East
LTE in the Middle East increased 174 percent to 3 million in Q2 2014.
There are 17 LTE deployments across the Middle East.
Vodafone Qatar is the latest operator to launch LTE in the region with a network going live in June 2014.
With a 20 percent population penetration in 1Q14, Kuwait is among the top 10 most penetrated markets globally.
LTE in Africa
Africa has 22 live LTE deployments by mid 2014 across 12 countries. Southern Africa has 12 LTE networks.
Of the 22 networks, 14 are from operators upgrading from 3G and very few of them offer LTE at a premium price. The eight remaining networks are deployed by ISPs, having upgraded from WiMAX or started from scratch with LTE. There were 1.6 million LTE subscriptions in Africa in Q1.
LTE forecast
The number of LTE subscriptions will exceed 2 billion by 2019, accounting for 25 percent of mobile broadband subscriptions.
editor@telecomlead.com
