LTE User Devices - LTE Ecosystem Report: Status Update March 2020

LTE User Devices Report:

Introduction

GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) monitors and researches worldwide mobile broadband developments and publishes facts, statistics and trends. This report confirms 16,332 LTE user devices identified as launched (including 61 commercial 5G devices also supporting LTE) from 755 manufacturers and provides an analysis of the main developments and trends. This new total is 19% higher than the number of devices identified by GSA in March 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.

While 5G grabs the headlines, LTE still dominates global mobile telecoms. There are 788 operators with commercially launched mobile or broadband fixed wireless access networks (GSA: NTS Database February 2020). There were 4.98 billion LTE subscriptions globally by the end of Q3 2019 (Ovum WCIS provided to GSA in January 2020). LTE accounts for over 55% 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 16,332 LTE-capable user devices including frequency and operator variants from 755 suppliers verified in GSA’s GAMBoD database, a 19% increase since March 2019. The number of devices has continued to grow rapidly, at an average growth rate of more than 2,900 devices per year for the past four years.

Form factor

The phone form factor has the largest ecosystem with 10,085 phones announced, including operator and frequency variants, giving a 61.7% share of all LTE devices. The LTE-capable CPE/router, LTE module and LTE-connected tablet PC segments (2,822, 1,164 and 1,159 devices respectively) are also large. Other categories being tracked include USB modems (316 devices), asset trackers (154), notebooks (98), smart watches (62) and cameras (59), as well as femtocells, vehicle on-board units (OBUs), car hotspots, fixed wireless terminals/phones, drones, kiosk terminals, PC cards, POS machines, projectors, smart home devices, vehicle accessories and voice translators.

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