The number of LTE subscriptions has reached 1.05 billion in 2015.
Telecom analyst firm Ovum says the number of LTE subscriptions will reach 3.62 billion in 2020.
India to have 10 percent market share in the global LTE services market in 2020 from a small figure in 2015. Main 4G telecoms in India are Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone India.
China will have 28 percent of LTE subscriptions in 2020 against 35 percent in 2015.
The US will have 10 percent of LTE subscriptions in 2020 as compared with 21 percent last year.
Japan will have 4 percent of LTE subscriptions in 2020 against 9 percent in 2015.
South Korea’s 4G market share will dip to 2 percent in 2020 from 4 percent now.
Indonesia will have 3 percent of the global LTE subscriptions.
Reaching 1 billion LTE subscriptions has taken less than 6 years compared with more than 10 years required for W-CDMA.
China is accounting for half of net additions during the last quarter and 35 percent of the total. China Mobile and China Telecom are the main 4G network operators in China.
China’s fellow BRIC members and Indonesia rise into the top 10 to dominate net additions and maintain LTE subscription growth rates well above 20 percent.
Mark Newman, chief research officer at Ovum, said: “We see LTE subscriptions doubling by 2017 and tripling by 2019 as smartphones become cheaper and mobile broadband services become more and more indispensable.”
Ovum forecasts that today’s majority 2G subscribers will become a rarity, with 3G and 4G accounting for 85 percent of all subscriptions by end-2020.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com