LTE (News - Alert) deployments worldwide are progressing quickly. According to the latest iGR study, U.S. market already has more than a half dozen LTE-capable smartphones and tablets with many more to follow by year-end 2012.
LTE uptake will grow very quickly in calendar 2012. As the LTE subscriber base starts to grow, more LTE-compatible devices become available. Accordingly, operators will increase network capacity.
Based on the anticipated growth of LTE subscribers and data traffic on the networks, iGR forecasts total U.S LTE infrastructure capital expenditures will touch $39.82 billion. The cost model estimate is based on the amount of data the network is able to support and deliver-- based on the cost required adding 1 GB of data capacity to the network.
The market research report, "U.S. LTE Network Infrastructure CapEx Spending Forecast, 2011-2016," forecasts the total LTE infrastructure CapEx investment per operator in the U.S. and the spending split by network component."Operators are continually balancing their network CapEx between coverage and capacity," said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR, in a statement. "The engineers strive to provide sufficient coverage to be competitive and sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the (hopefully) growing subscriber base, while minimizing unnecessary CapEx.”
Meanwhile, a recent LTE Ecosystem Report 2012-2017 from Reportlinker finds that $10.84bn will be spent on LTE infrastructure in 2012.
According to this report prepared by Visiongain (News - Alert), markets in North America and Asia Pacific will experience strong growth along with Europe. Middle Eastern nations will also show signs of a dynamic LTE market, as their governments are keen to roll out the latest and fastest cellular networks.
The report further said that LTE spending in the rest of the world, such as in Latin American and Africa, will be much less significant, despite a favorable growth rate. The increased adoption of broadband networks and the decreasing prices of smart devices will eventually change the situation in the long term.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
