Huawei and Ericsson (News - Alert) have both topped the numbers of LTE contracts, according to a new report from Informa, and LTE deployments are growing rapidly.


"The top three vendors have illustrated significant technological expertise and support to mobile operators, with Huawei (News - Alert) and Ericsson having attracted the largest share of contracts," says Dimitris Mavrakis, co-author of the report. "Preliminary research among operator CTOs, conducted by Informa (News - Alert), also suggests that Ericsson and Huawei are highly regarded when assessing when assessing vendors according to technology, pricing, support and managed-service capabilities."

The report found that 184 LTE installations had already been completed as of the end of July 2013. A further 159 more are slated for completion, many of them due before the end of the year. Nearly all major telecoms, including Verizon Wireless, SK Telecom, NTT (News - Alert) DoCoMo, Everything Everywhere and Vodafone have implemented LTE networks.

The number of LTE subsctiptions is expected to reach 1.36 billion by the end of 2018, though this varies from country to country.

According to the report, 23 frequency bands have been identified for LTE use, though mostly in the 1800 Mhz band. More than 90 operators in 53 countries have implemented or are building LTE networks in this band between 2011 and 2015. The areas covered include Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Major carriers, including Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile (News - Alert) and Hutchison are adopting the band.

“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 Julian Bright, coauthor of the report. "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."




Edited by Stefania Viscusi