New research from Frost & Sullivan suggests that as the demand for mobile broadband services continues to grow, service providers are moving towards faster data networks.
Moreover, with LTE technology offering lower operating costs for mobile data transfers, mobile operators worldwide are progressively focusing on deploying LTE networks as a path for moving towards fourth generation (4G) services.
Also, as per the research, LTE revenues in India, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia will reach $11.88 billion, $4.55 billion and $3.38 billion respectively in 2017. While LTE revenues in India are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 220.5 per cent (2012-2017), revenues in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are expected to grow at 75.6 and 45.3 percent respectively, between 2011 and 2017.
LTE uptake, in particular, for deploying high speed mobile broadband services, will be boosted by the technology’s capacity, lower cost of deployment, support for high mobility, spectrum flexibility and superior quality of services. LTE is poised to boost the demand for data intensive services such as mobile TV and mobile video conferencing. This, in turn, is expected to increase telecom operators’ revenues, while improving the overall end-user experience.
However, the inability to support voice, SMS and spectrum concerns, including the lack of spectrum harmonisation, is likely to dampen LTE adoption. Such challenges are expected to exacerbate by an underdeveloped LTE device ecosystem that limits the number of access device options, especially those of handsets. Moreover, high deployment costs will manifest into premium-price tags for LTE services.
