October 26, 2009
LTE On its Way to Top $5 Billion in 2013: Report
By Narayan Bhat, TMCnet Contributor
The gloomy economic environment has not slowed down the uptake of wireless technology LTE (News - Alert). In fact, the number of commercial LTE launches scheduled for 2010 has risen from 10 in March to 14 now, says market research firm Infonetics.
By 2013, the number of LTE service subscribers may reach 72 million, and the market for LTE infrastructure equipment may top $5 billion, predicts the research firm.
The first major technical deployments of LTE have started in Japan and the U.S., driven mainly by NTT DoCoMo and Verizon Wireless.
A couple of months ago, Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless officials said the company had successfully tested LG and Samsung devices on trial installations in the Boston and Seattle areas, and noted that ST-Ericsson, Motorola (News - Alert) and Qualcomm were also working on LTE devices.
Peak rates, latency and spectral efficiency are the chief drivers behind the push to make LTE the universal future-proof mobile broadband platform, says the researcher in its biannual “LTE Infrastructure and Subscribers” market size and forecast report.
“As mobile operators initially build their LTE coverage, the E-UTRAN is where the action will be. Later, as the time comes to figure out a way to monetize LTE-based services, the significance of the evolved packet core will rise,” said Stéphane Téral,principal analyst with Infonetics.
For the first five years of deployment, according to the market analyst, LTE will be predominantly PC-based with LTE smartphones expected to hit the market after 2011.
Other important predictions are:
- Residential voice, video, data services to hit $300 billion by 2013
- Mobile broadband cards expected to hit $8.4 billion by 2013
- Mobile broadband services expected to more than double by 2013
- W-CDMA equipment up 21 percent in 2Q, driven by 3G rollouts, smartphones, data card upgrades.
Narayan Bhat is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Narayan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Erin Harrison
