According to ABI Research, revenue from long term evolution (LTE) services is expected to reach $73.8 billion and $530 billion by 2013 and 2018 respectively.
ABI Research estimates that the number of global LTE subscribers will reach 183 million this year. Over the next two years, 123 networks will support LTE service. By 2018, LTE deployments will have population coverage of 57 per cent (4.2 billion) and 31 per cent (2.3 billion) in legacy WCDMA and CDMA2000 markets respectively. Further, TD-LTE coverage will achieve 49 per cent population coverage by the end of the five year period.
ABI Research forecast that 4G service revenue in India will reach $73.8 billion in 2013 and $530 billion by 2018. The research firm expects that the increase in LTE revenue service would help Indian LTE service providers like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI) to boost their revenues. At present Bharti Airtel offers 4G services in 4 cities in India, while RJI is expected to roll out LTE services by the end of this year.
While Airtel has 4G presence in four major cities across India, Reliance Jio Infocomm will start offering 4G early next year. According to the research firm, LTE service roll-outs in India are slow due to regulatory issues, lack of strong business model and affordable 4G-enabled handsets.
