Semiconductor LTE Connections To Top One Billion by 2017
LTE will make its presence felt in 2012 with
connection volumes increasing nine-fold to reach 90 million by year-end,
according to Strategy Analytics' report "Worldwide Cellular User Forecasts:
2012-2017."
With LTE (Long Term Evolution) smartphones now pushing beyond their core early markets of the US, South Korea and Japan, this technology is set for a rapid rise and is expected to exceed one billion connections by early 2017.
LTE is claimed to have overwhelming support by global operators as the 4G upgrade path offers improved cost efficiency for mobile data services. Strategy Analytoics says this market will account for 15 percent of all mobile connections in 2017, putting it on a faster trajectory than any other mobile technologies. GSM took 12 years to reach one billion connections and WCDMA will take nearly 11 years, while LTE will take just over seven years.
"It has taken some time to warm up, but operator sentiment toward LTE has improved significantly over the last year," comments Phil Kendall, Director of the Strategy Analytics Wireless Operator Strategies service. "The LTE smartphone market is providing this sudden lift, with LTE's medium-term potential boosted by the much greater scale in today's mobile market: WCDMA launched into a world of fewer than one billion mobile connections, whereas we have over six billion connections today."
Sue Rudd, Director, Service Provider Analysis, concludes, "The race is on for mobile operators to reduce cost per GB to match the rate at which revenue per GB is falling. LTE is one of the key tools to deliver this improvement, with the early volume in LTE devices an encouraging sign for operators looking to maximise return on their LTE investments."
