Global LTE market share hits 39%

Worldwide LTE connections reached 3.2 billion at the end of March 2018, marking a 39% market share globally.

LTE is forecast to achieve 4 billion connections in 2019 and pass five billion connections in 2021. This growth more than doubles the 1.5 billion LTE connections in June 2016 in two years’ time to 3 billion.

According to data from Ovum, North America’s market share for LTE reached 76%, exceeding all other world regions.

The next highest world regions are Oceania, Eastern and South Eastern Asia with LTE share of 59%, followed by Western Europe at 46%. Latin America and the Caribbean had significant growth of LTE market share to 31.5% at the end of 1Q 2018.

“5G is on the horizon and will be built upon the most solid of foundations — LTE— which is the current workhorse for the industry and offers mobile broadband global coverage for many years to come,” said Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.

“We are already hearing news of planned 5G deployments beginning later in 2018 and early 2019; however, LTE will continue to grow until 2022, when we will begin to see some substantial uptake in 5G connections.”

LTE is currently deployed on 597 networks worldwide, of which 251 are LTE-Advanced (TeleGeography-GlobalComms Database). The global deployment success of LTE provides the basis for mobile broadband wireless coverage and roaming for the billions of LTE subscribers worldwide.

LTE market share reached 38.5% at the end of March 2018 and will continue its aggressive rise over the coming years.

“Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia region play a significant role in the global growth of LTE subscriptions, accounting for 41% of all LTE subscribers by 2022, compared to 32% of all cellular subscribers worldwide. And it’s interesting to note that, while LTE continues to see phenomenal growth surpassing 50% in 2020, 5G begins to make its inroads beginning by 2022, with some regions — particularly North America and Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia — starting to see some LTE subscriber declines as a result,” said Kristin Paulin, Senior Analyst at Ovum.

Other notable statistics include:

• 907 million new LTE subscriptions year-over-year from 1Q 2017.
• LTE connections forecast to reach 5.6 billion by year-end 2022 (forecast includes M2M).
• LTE global market share forecast to reach 60% by year end 2022.
   

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Gunnar Assmy

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