LTE and 5G Market Statistics – 8 April 2019

LTE and 5G Market Statistics.

• 224 operators investing in 5G mobile or 5G fixed wireless broadband networks.
• There are 720 operators with commercially launched LTE networks (broadband fixed wireless access and or mobile). At least 116other companies have licences suitable for LTE services, are deploying LTE, or are planning LTE networks; or are evaluating, testing or trialling LTE.
• 220 operators hold licences to use spectrum for TDD services, 155 of which have launched services.
• 293 operators have launched LTE-Advanced or LTE-Advanced Pro technologies in their commercial networks. 174 operators are known to be investing in one or more LTE-Advanced Pro technologies
• 224 operators in 88 countries are investing in 5G networks in the form of tests, trials, pilots, planned and actual deployments.
• By 8 April 2019 39 operators had announced that they had deployed either non-3GPP-compliant or 3GPP-compliant 5G technology in their networks. At the time of the update, fourteen had announced the launch of 5G mobile or FWA services (many of them with only very limited availability). Sunrise in Switzerland has subsequently joined that list, taking the total to fifteen. Thirteen of those are understood to have deployed 3GPP-compliant networks.

The NTS database tracks various LTE network technologies:

• 4×4 MIMO – 133 operators identified as investing, of which 73 have deployed/launched the technology within their commercial networks.
• 8T8R MIMO and Massive MIMO – 55 operators identified as investing in these technologies.
• 256 QAM in the DL – 108 operators identified as investing, of which 62 have deployed/launched the technology within their commercial networks.

And numerous key LTE service features:

• 33 operators investing in LAA(7 with launched networks); 11 operators investing in LTE-U(3 with deployed/launched networks); 3 operators investing in LWA (one launch so far). 11 operators (all in the US) are investing in CBRS.
• 255 operators investing in VoLTE, with 186 launched networks.
• 23 operators investing in Enhanced Voice Services (EVS), including 20 launches.
• 5 launched/deployed eMBMSservices.
• 140 operators investing in NB-IoTwith 88 deployed/launched networks.
• 60 operators investing in LTE-Mwith 34 deployed/launched networks.

©2019 GSA