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4G Americas says that by the latest reckoning from Informa Telecoms & Media, LTE connections in North America have grown to 78.9 million, or about 21% of the total regional subscriptions of 378 million.
North America continues to lead the world in LTE market share, with half of the worlds 157.7 million LTE connections as of Sept. 2013, according to 4G Americas. LTE represented only 2.4% of all cellular connections worlwide as of the third quarter, but it is expected to be the dominant technology in North America in the coming year.
“Meteoric growth of LTE in North America continues to set the global pace and leadership of mobile broadband innovation,” said Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. “There were more than 50 million new LTE connections in one year, showcasing the significant customer response to LTE’s technology advancements and increased data speeds.”
The Latin American market is also shifting toward LTE and HSPA, with market share rising to 24% of the 700 million mobile connections in the region. GSM subscriptions are beginning to decline and shift to mobile broadband, according to 4G Americas, with 59.1 million new HSPA and HSPA+ connections year-over-year and 20.2 million added in just the third quarter. There are 31 commercial LTE networks in 14 Latin American countries in the region.
HSPA and HSPA+ also gained 1.4 million new connections for the quarter in North America, and 7.8 million connections year-over-year with a market share of 34%. There are 38 commercial LTE networks launched in the U.S. and Canada, according to the industry group, which tracks global LTE, HSPA and HSPA+ deployments around the world.
“Looking at the worldwide picture, as of September, North America still accounts for half of all worldwide LTE subscriptions,” said Kristin Paulin, a senior researcher at Informa Telecoms & Media. “But North America’s LTE dominance is declining as LTE is also growing strongly in other regions, especially Asia, where LTE subscriptions were 66 million at the end of the third quarter 2013, compared to 79 million in North America.”
