LTE Ecosystem December 2020 – Global update
Introduction
GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) monitors and researches worldwide mobile broadband developments and publishes facts, statistics and trends. This report confirms 18,801 LTE user devices identified as launched (including 300 commercial 5G devices also supporting LTE) from 828 manufacturers and provides an analysis of the main developments and trends. The increase in manufacturers mostly reflects the addition to the database of a number of small specialist vendors for particular form factors including industrial CPE/routers and asset trackers.
This new total is 19.2% higher than the number of devices identified by GSA in December 2019. This report covers LTE FDD and TDD (TD-LTE) models and LTE-related cellular IoT devices standardised by 3GPP as UE Cat-M1/M2 and UE Cat-NB1/NB2.LTE user devices
While 5G grabs the headlines, LTE still dominates global mobile telecoms. There are 806 operators with commercially launched mobile or broadband fixed-wireless access networks (GSA: NTS Database December 2020). There were 5.82 billion LTE subscriptions globally by the end of Q3 2020 (source: Omdia, December 2020). LTE accounts for 62.1% of mobile subscriptions globally. Given this huge market, it is not surprising that there is a vibrant technology ecosystem supporting operators with LTE networks and within that, a large number of vendors selling a huge array of devices.
There are 18,801 LTE-capable user devices including frequency and operator variants from 828 suppliers verified in GSA’s GAMBoD database, a 19.2% increase since December 2019. The number of devices has continued to grow rapidly, at an average growth rate of more than 3,000 devices per year for the past four years.
Form factor
The phone form factor has the largest ecosystem with 10,966 phones announced, including operator and frequency variants, giving a 58% share of all LTE devices. This month the number of LTE-capable indoor and outdoor FWA CPE has begun to be tracked separately, standing at 625 devices, while the number of other LTE-capable CPE (including industrial/enterprise CPE, mobile hotspots and other router devices) is 3169 devices. The LTE module and LTE-connected tablet PC segments (1,502 and 1,252 devices respectively) are also large. Other categories being tracked include USB modems (356 devices), asset trackers (213), cameras (168), notebooks (123) and smart watches (85), as well as car hotspots, vehicle on-board units (OBUs), femtocells, fixed wireless terminals/phones, data loggers/IoT sensors, drones, kiosk terminals, PC cards, POS machines, projectors, smart-home devices, vehicle accessories, intercoms, encoders and voice translators.
LTE device frequency bands
Most devices operate in the FDD mode (16,837 devices out of 18,801: 89.6%), while the number of terminals that support LTE TDD (TD-LTE) continues to grow: 8,447 (44.9%) LTE devices support the LTE TDD (TD-LTE) mode.
LTE networks are operating commercially in many bands. Table 1 (LTE-FDD) and Table 2 (LTE-TDD) confirm the frequency bands that are most supported by the device ecosystem.
LTE Ecosystem December 2020 – Global update
©GSA 2020
