According to Juniper Research, a rapid uptake is forecast for LTE mobile broadband technology, with subscriber levels touching 428m by 2016. But, their reach will be limited to only 6% of the global subscriber population. Most of this growth is expected to take place from 2012 onwards.
The new 4G LTE Opportunities report from Juniper Research found that with the rate of LTE network commitments at an all-time high, network vendors have significantly improved their position to offer products and solutions to network operators. This, in turn, will cause the total number of LTE base station deployments to reach almost 1m by 2014.
Though LTE would be dominated by the uptake of enterprise subscribers, 2013 will see consumer subscribers beginning to sign up in large numbers. They will eventually overtake enterprise subscribers by 2015.
Report author Nitin Bhas said with LTE being offered as a premium level service initially, enterprise subscribers will be attracted by the improved data speeds and the service guarantees that will be offered. He added, "The emerging factor that will drive consumer take-up later in the forecast and beyond is the embedding of LTE technology in consumer devices."
The report foresees LTE smartphones and tablets to dominate the LTE connected end user device market, accounting for 50% of the total LTE subscribers by 2016. LTE smartphones are expected to achieve early market traction in the enterprise market, with high-end data users migrating to the faster technology.
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