We have been following the emergence of 4G technologies pretty closely, including the looming battle between WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE). As part of this continuing coverage, we are going to give you short updates on these technologies and current carrier plans. Stacey outlined the 4G plans of various U.S. carriers last week. This post is small update on the state of LTE market.
According to ABI Research, there will be 32 million subscribers on LTE by 2013, though LTE Networks aren’t likely to go commercial before 2010. Equipment maker Ericsson has predicted mass adoption in 2012. ABI says Asia Pacific will have 12 million LTE subscribers, while Western Europe and North America will share the remainder. ABI predicts that LTE will compete with fixed line broadband services such as DSL and spur a big demand for mobile-connected Internet devices — not necessarily personal computers or phones.
Carriers who are betting on LTE include China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless. NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan, AT&T and Metro PCS in the U.S., and a few other carriers are still working out plans that involve LTE.
Our previous LTE/4G posts:
1 trackback so far
7:38 AM PT
[...] the wireless guys need to rethink their wireless broadband plans and bring them forward. For phone companies the prospect of being cannibalized by wireless data [...]
6 comments so far
11:38 PM PT
LTE to compete with DSL? Om - you should know better than that. I do not envision a wireless alternative to DSL for another 15 years
6:11 AM PT
Petabro, better update your vision.
6:54 AM PT
@petabro, of course it would. not today but soon enough. at leave with the current dsl version. @rick. Amen.
1:47 PM PT
Sure, the major carriers all love LTE. That is because they are just now deploying their 3G networks and need to re-coup their investment while disparaging other, faster newtworks like WiMAX. New entrants that don’t have this legacy baggage will purchase the spectrum and deploy WiMAX networks now.
The equipment makers are indifferent - all have both wimax and LTE products on the roadmaps. Its the entrenched wireless carriers with their capital cycles that are driving the demand for LTE.
3:14 PM PT
LTE is supposed to be a much more “closed” network, right? This is why so many software engineers/application developers are pulling for WiMAX since it isn’t as restricted of a network. The speeds & capabilities for LTE & WiMAX are approximately the same for both too, right?
2:26 AM PT
So if Wireless keeps improving at current rates and DSL stays with current technology, then wireless will equal DSL? Sounds like one of those maths problems involving trains and stations.
Carriers are investing in wireless at the moment because of the higher margins. The improvements you will see in wireless are less to do with technical potential and more to do with earnings potential.