LTE Impact Will Vary by Region

In the communications business, what is true of some regions often is not true of others. Consider Long Term Evolution. Some believe LTE will not contribute much revenue between now and 2015. "Only 11 percent of mobile broadband subscribers are going to be on LTE networks by 2015, and LTE may not generate revenue growth," said Matt Walker, Ovum principal analyst.

But there appears to be clear developing differences between regions. In Europe, spectrum auctions haven't even occurred, much less the construction of LTE networks. For those reasons, there will not be so much revenue opportunity in Europe. The United States is a different matter, though.

The Yankee Group, for example, predicts that the United States will lead the world in LTE service adoption, and over 20 percent of all U.S. mobile lines using LTE by 2014, far exceeding the global average of just 2.1 percent.

LTE Impact Will Vary by Region