Global LTE connections grew 59 percent from June 2016 to June 2017 reaching 2.37 billion, said 5G Americas.
India was one of the main contributors to the growth in LTE subscriber base in the second quarter of 2017.
The LTE market share compared to all other mobile wireless technologies reached 30 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 10 percentage points in one year.
The world has more LTE subscribers as compared with 3G subscribers.
Telecom operators added 878 million new LTE subscriptions in one year according to data from Ovum for the second quarter of 2017.
“LTE subscriptions grew by 878 million worldwide from 2Q 2016 to 2Q 2017, with nearly half of the additional subscriptions (48 percent) coming from the Oceania, Eastern & Southeastern Asia region where China is by far the largest contributor to LTE,” said Kristin Paulin, senior analyst, Ovum.
“It is Central and Southern Asia with the biggest LTE subscriber growth over this same period with 1,203 percent including India as the biggest contributor to LTE, while penetration of LTE technology in the region is only 10 percent,” Kristin Paulin said.
India’s LTE growth was supported by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone.
By comparison, North America has an LTE penetration over 90 percent – and that is why the LTE 2Q 2017 year-over-year growth rate for the region was much lower than others at 20 percent.
The world has 2.37 billion LTE connections out of a total of 7.8 billion total cellular connections worldwide.
The world has 878 million new LTE subscriptions with 59 percent growth.
The global LTE connections are forecast to reach 4.8 billion by year-end 2021 (forecast includes M2M).
LTE global market share is forecast to reach 53 percent by year end 2021.
Worldwide, LTE will be reaching over 2.5 billion connections by the end of 2017, 3 billion in 2018 and 4.9 billion connections in 2022. 5G is forecast to have 389 million connections worldwide by 2022.
LTE
5G is forecast to reach 111 million connections by the end of 2021.
North America
North America achieved 327 million LTE subscriptions by the end of June 2017. LTE in North America achieved penetration rate of 90.5 percent with 327 million connections compared to the population of 362 million in North America. LTE penetration in North America is expected to pass 100 percent in 2018.
North America has 327 million LTE connections for net gain of 54 million new LTE customers from 2Q 2016 to 2Q 2017.
North America LTE is forecast to reach 456 million connections at the end of 2021 (including M2M).
North America will have 34.9 million 5G connections in 2021 – nearly 31 percent of all global 5G connections.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Latin America nearly doubled LTE connections to 159 million from 81.5 million year-over-year at 2Q 2017 increasing by 95 percent.
LTE’s market share increased from 12 percent to 23 percent year-over-year at the end of June 2017, almost doubling in the region.
Latin America and the Caribbean has 695 million total mobile wireless subscriptions.
Latin America and the Caribbean has 159 million LTE connections; 77.6 million new LTE connections added year-over-year from 2Q 2016.
LTE in Latin America and the Caribbean is forecast to reach 198.6 million connections at the end of 2017 (forecast includes M2M) and a 28 percent share of market.
By the end of 2021, LTE in Latin America and the Caribbean is forecast to reach 458 million connections (forecast includes M2M) and a 59 percent share of market with total number of connections reaching 777 million.
