Economy No Problem For LTE Rollouts

There’s good news and good news regarding the short-term prospects for Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks: The challenging macro economic environment is not preventing operators from building out their LTE networks. In contrast to the slowdown in sales momentum for the 2G/3G mobile Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment, the LTE market showed few signs of slowing down.

Here’s what Dell’Oro Group research says:

>> LTE RAN revenues up more than 160 percent compared with 1Q11.
>> There were more than 60 commercial LTE networks at the end of 1Q12.
>> There were 15 million LTE subscriptions at the end of 1Q12, up 70 percent Q/Q.

“With a LTE tablet that can be used by two-thirds of the U.S. population, operators around the world are looking to the United States as an example of the potential opportunities that can be realized with the combination of a high-performance network, rich eco-system of popular devices and price plans that promote the shift to LTE,” comments Stefan Pongratz, senior analyst. “And it is pretty clear at this point that the success story is spreading.”

He continues, “There are now more than 80 countries committed to LTE.  While 80 percent of the revenues in 1Q12 came from North America, Japan and South Korea, this will clearly change in the future as more countries are awarded licenses to deploy LTE.”