LTE Subs Will Exceed 1 Billion by End of 2015

There were 635 million Long Term Evolution subscriptions active worldwide at the end of March 2015, said Alan Hadden, Global mobile Suppliers Association VP, representing a gain of 382 million LTE subscriptions in 2014.

GSA forecasts the market will grow to over one billion LTE subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2015.

A similar forecast was issued by ABI Research. There will be nearly 1.37 billion 4G LTE subscribers worldwide by the end of 2015, up from nearly 650 million in 2014, ABI Research estimates.

LTE subscriptions increased by 123.7 million in the first quarter of  2015, 58 percent more than the  77.9 million 3G/WCDMA-HSPA subscriptions added in the same quarter.

The Asia-Pacific region increased its share of global LTE subscriptions to 49 percent, compared to 38 percent in 2013, according to GSA.  

North America remains the second largest LTE market, though its share fell to 28 percent of global LTE subscriptions, compared with 45 percent in 2013.

China had 162 million LTE subscriptions in the first quarter.

Europe’s LTE share has reached 16 percent. The Latin America and Caribbean region has over 16 million 4G/LTE subscriptions and is over 13 million higher than a year ago.

The Middle East grew at 240 percent rates. Russia grew at a 400-percent rate.

ABI Research also forecasts that the LTE subscriber base will exceed 3.5 billion by 2020, growing at a 21 percent compound average growth rate.  

Quality of Experience, Network Management Drive VoLTE, voice over Wi-Fi for Carriers

Business models for Voice over LTE and Voice over Wi-Fi are anything but simple.

As often is the case, carrying voice and Internet access over a single network is more simple, in some respects, as operators are not delivering voice on 3G and data on 4G. But little in the way of direct new revenue is generated, in most cases.

Likewise for voice over Wi-Fi, whose primary value for a branded operator service is simply better indoor coverage, not necessarily enhanced revenue. To be sure, the feature might well lead to higher customer satisfaction. Carrier Wi-Fi voice should result in higher carrier voice usage, but whether that also leads to higher revenues is unclear.

In other words, the business value of Wi-Fi voice is equivalent ot providing a denser network of cell sites. The business value of VoLTE is management simplicity, and eventually the ability to reclaim 3G spectrum for next generation network use.

In many respects, the business value of voice carried over LTE or Wi-Fi is indirect, as generally has been the case for Wi-Fi hotspots.

For many years, the value of carrier-provided public hotspots was as an amenity or feature that made fixed or mobile Internet access more valuable. Hotspots offered higher speeds and stronger signals indoors.

More recently, private Wi-Fi has become an effective means for allowing mobile users to avoid mobile data charges, while boosting indoor coverage as well.

Some non-tradtional or attacking mobile carriers have relied on Wi-Fi to provide lower cost service, while also containing service provider wholesale capacity charges.

So far, the benefits of voice over LTE and carrier-branded Wi-Fi voice provide similar indirect benefits.