As of today, there are 263 Long Term Evolution commercial networks globally, according to the latest update from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association.
More than 100 LTE networks were launched during 2013, bringing the total as of Dec. 31 to 260; three more have been added so far this month. The GSA expects that there will be at least 350 LTE networks commercially launched by the end of 2014, and says there are 508 operators who are investing in LTE in 144 countries, with 456 firm commitments to build out networks.
“Key trends this year include more deployments of carrier aggregation and other LTE-Advanced features, growth in voice services enabled by VoLTE, and a significant expansion of international LTE roaming services,” said GSA President Alan Hadden in a statement.
The GSA said that many operators are testing carrier aggregation for combining two 20 MHz channels to enable peak downlink speeds of up to 300 Mbps, with commercialization expected mid-2014.
Voice over LTE is expected to gain ground this year, and the GSA noted that there are now an estimated 30-odd models of phones on the market that are VoLTE-compatible.
While FDD-LTE continues to be the dominant technology, the GSA confirmed that for the first time, more than 10% of the existing commercial networks incorporate TDD-LTE. Thirteen operators have deployed both FDD and TDD modes.
