Japan is expected to be one of the first markets in the world to see a commercial LTE deployment while its telecom growth will be led by high speed broadband connections over fibre and increased adoption of sophisticated mobile data services enabled by 4G networks, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Over the next five year, the firm expects the Japanese telecommunications services market to grow at a CAGR of 3.5%, reaching $171.9bn by 2014. In addition, Pyramid expects 4G, LTE in particular, to take off from 2013 as LTE handsets are introduced in large quantities in Japan.

Tae-Hyung Kim, analyst at Pyramid Research, said: "Japan will be one of the first markets in the world to see a commercial LTE deployment as incumbent NTT DoCoMo plans to launch the service before the end of 2010.

"Over the next three years, Japan will see significant capex, continuing a long trend of technological innovation. Most of the investment will come from mobile operators as they not only build out their LTE networks, but also modernize their core networks to support an all-IP platform."