52 Mobile Operators Have Deployed LTE-Advanced, 58% at 300 Mbps

LTE-Advanced supporting downstream capacity between 150 Mbps and 300 Mbps, with 50 Mbps on the uplink, now are commercially deployed by 52 operators.

Some 30 of the networks support the maximum 300 Mbps downlink speed, operating in 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Jersey, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Altogether, 64 operators have commercially launched LTE-Advanced systems, using frequency aggregation, in 39 countries, the Global mobile Suppliers Association says.

Some 116 operators, representing about 30 percent of LTE operators, are investing in carrier aggregation technology worldwide.

Globally,  393 operators have commercially launched LTE networks in 138 countries, according to data in its latest Evolution to LTE report. 107 operators commercially launched LTE service in the past year. GSA forecasts there will be 460 commercially launched LTE networks by the end of 2015.

Globally, some 858 devices (about 30 percent of all LTE devices) support speeds up to 150 Mbps, while 69 devices (small cells, routers, MiFis, smartphones and tablets) support 300 Mbps.

There also are 13 deployed LTE-Advanced networks in commercial use or trial supporting 450 Mbps, in Angola, Australia, Finland, Japan, Portugal, Qatar, Turkey, South Korea, Switzerland, UAE and the UK.