Asia ends March with more than 734M LTE subscribers, according to the GSA
LTE technology gained 182 million connections in the first quarter of this year, according to recent figures from the Global mobile Suppliers Association.
GSA revealed that the number of LTE and LTE-Advanced subscriptions amounted to 1.29 billion worldwide by the end of Q1. During 2015, more than 645 million LTE subscriptions worldwide were added, representing 100% annual growth.
“LTE subscriptions were signed up during the first quarter of 2016 at an average of 2 million per day and the rate is accelerating. LTE is now connecting over one in six mobile subscribers worldwide,” GSA VP Alan Hadden said.
Asia ended Q1 2016 with more than 734 million LTE subscriptions, representing 56.8% of global LTE subscriptions at the end of the period. By March 2016, China had passed 511 million LTE subscriptions, adding 96.3 million during the period. North America remains the second-largest LTE market with 253 million subscriptions and 19.6% of the global total. Europe had 14% of global LTE subscriptions at the end of Q1.
In the Latin America and Caribbean region, LTE subscribers totaled 68.5 million, representing a market share of 5.3% at the end of March. Also, a total of 11.1 million LTE subscriptions were added in the Middle East region in the first three months of the year to reach 46.6 million. Russia had 16.7 million LTE subscriptions at the end of Q1, while Africa had 9 million LTE subscriptions, according to the GSA report.
GSA recently revealed that 503 operators have commercially launched LTE systems in 167 countries, and forecasts there will be at least 550 commercially launched LTE networks by the end of this year.
The report also stated that around 25% of LTE operators have already commercially launched LTE-Advanced services.
