International 4G Americas reports that LTE continues to accelerate rapidly with a total of nearly 755 million connections worldwide as of the second quarter of 2015; a 141 percent increase over year-on-year, according to Ovum's research.
North America continues to lead the world by raising its high positioning in terms of LTE market share to 47.5 percent compared to LTE's growing global market share, located at 10 percent. Latin America boasted the highest growth rate of LTE connections among all regions of the world.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Latin America added 17 million new LTE connections over twelve months, to end the quarter with a total of 22.5 million subscriptions and the highest growth rate of all regions of the world, located at 324 percent as of June 2015.
The market continues to change as GSM subscribers move to HSPA and HSPA+ and likewise, HSPA subscribers continue to migrate to LTE. GSM was reduced by 66 million connections, and HSPA conquered 68 million. Market shares in Latin America and the Caribbean were as follows: GSM, 54 per cent; HSPA, 41 percent; LTE, 3 percent.
70 commercial LTE networks in 28 countries; 52 in Latin America and 18 in the Caribbean
22.5 million LTE connections as of June 2015; a net gain of 17 million new LTE subscribers in the last 12 months
LTE connections are projected to reach 29 million by the end of 2015 and 259 million by the end of 2020.
299 million HSPA and HSPA+ connections, 23 million in Q2; 68 million in the 12 months ended June 2015
LTE and LTE-Advanced in the world
LTE connections more than doubled from the 314 million recorded in June 2014, adding 441 million new subscriptions and a growth of 141 percent globally in the twelve months ended June 2015. LTE is marketed on 425 networks in 145 countries today. Operators are beginning to evolve to LTE-Advanced, which is already marketed on 88 networks in 45 countries around the world.
The number of LTE-Advanced networks increased by 21 networks during the last quarter alone, indicating that operators around the world are looking for optimizations such as carrier aggregation.
