China’s Huawei is currently the top worldwide supplier of LTE network equipment, according to new research from Informa Telecoms and Media. The research firm estimates Huawei’s market share at 40% based on its number of LTE contracts. Huawei has won contracts with a number of European carriers, including Norway’s Telenor and a number of Polish operators.
Ericsson follows with a share of 34%. NSN, which is now fully owned by Nokia, has an estimated 17% market share, and Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE, Samsung and NEC have a combined total of 9%.
Dollar volume of LTE contracts is a different story. In the United States, which is of course one of the largest markets for LTE, some of the largest contracts have gone to Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. Members of Congress have warned American mobile operators against buying infrastructure equipment from Huawei because of concerns that the Chinese government could work through Huawei to intercept American communications.
Informa says 184 LTE networks were in service at the end of July 2013, with another 159 planned or in deployment. The firm projects 1.36 billion LTE subscribers worldwide by the end of 2018. A look at planned and active LTE deployments around the world shows that while the United States, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and Northern Europe lead in active LTE networks, countries around the world are planning to deploy the technology.
The 1800MHz band is increasingly important for LTE deployments. Informa has identified more than 90 operators in 53 countries who have launched or will launch LTE in the 1800MHz band between 2011 and 2015, covering Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
“The adoption of the 1800MHz band for LTE has exploded over the last year, as mobile operators are attracted by the band’s unique set of advantages, such as widespread availability, excellent coverage and the possibility of reusing existing network assets,” says Informa’s Julian Bright. “Coupled with strong support from LTE-device manufacturers, these benefits make 1800MHz an ideal band for LTE services, and a strong candidate to provide a globally harmonized roaming solution for LTE.”
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