Near doubling of LTE network commitments in past 8 months

A new report published by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) confirms there are 51 LTE network commitments in 24 countries. This is a near-doubling of the planned networks over the past eight months.

In addition, HSPA dominates the mobile broadband market, with 303 networks in commercial service in 142 countries. A further 51 networks are in various stages of deployment or planning. More than 96 per cent of the world's WCDMA systems have now deployed the HSPA upgrade. A total of 66 operators have committed to HSPA Evolution, otherwise known as HSPA+.

With the first commercial LTE network launches just around the corner, GSA anticipates that up to 19 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end 2010. Dozens of LTE trials are on-going in all regions, and in the coming months these are likely to lead to a wave of further commitments to deploy LTE being announced. Article