The United States is the top LTE market and expected to keep the top spot until 2005 when China comes into the LTE fold. The main cause of the LTE honor is Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE network, reported Informa Telecoms & Media. The top 4G leader in the U.S., however, is Sprint's WiMAX network.
“Although 26 operators worldwide have launched LTE networks, Verizon stands out with more than 3 million subscriptions in 3Q11, putting it on track for more than 4 million by year-end. That will represent 63% of total global LTE subscriptions of 6.4 million at end-2011,” says Mike Roberts, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
Since launching LTE in December 2010 and the iPhone in February 2011, Verizon has gained market share on AT&T and most other US operators apart from MetroPCS, which launched LTE in September 2010.
“Verizon has increased its share of US mobile subscriptions from 31% in 4Q10, when it launched LTE, to 33% in 2Q11,” Roberts says. “That’s a huge swing in six months, particularly in a mature market such as the US.”
“Verizon has added around 2 to 2.3 million iPhone subscriptions every quarter in 2011, but new LTE subscriptions nearly tripled from 500,000 in 1Q11 to 1.4 million in 3Q11,” Roberts says. Looking at a different metric, LTE accounted for 53% of Verizon’s total postpaid net subscriber additions in 3Q11, up from 30% in the second quarter. “The bottom line is Verizon is increasing market share, subscriptions and revenues with LTE.”
With all the focus on Verizon’s LTE launch, it’s important to remember that Sprint is actually the 4G leader in the US, with near 8 million 4G WiMAX subscriptions in the third quarter – more than double Verizon’s LTE subscriptions.”
According to Informa Telecoms & Media, 2016, there will be 100 million LTE subscribers in the US compared to 613 million LTE subscribers worldwide.