Status of the LTE Ecosystem.
15,749 LTE user devices (including 40 commercial 5G devices also supporting LTE) have been identified in the market from 736 manufacturers.
The number of LTE devices has grown 20% since December 2018.
While 5G grabs the headlines, LTE still dominates global mobile telecoms. There are 791 operators with commercially launched mobile or broadband fixed wireless access networks (GSA: NTS Database December 2019). There were 4.7 billion LTE subscriptions globally by the end of Q2 2019 (Ovum WCIS provided to GSA in September 2019). LTE accounts for just over 53% 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 15,749 LTE user devices including frequency and operator variants from 736 suppliers verified in GSA’s GAMBoD database – a 20% increase since December 2018. The number of devices has continued to grow rapidly – at an average growth rate of more than 3000 devices per year for the past three years.
9,846 LTE capable phones, 2,738 LTE routers, 1118 LTE modules, and 1088 LTE tablets have been launched
The phone form factor has the largest ecosystem with 9846 phones announced, including operator and frequency variants, giving a 62.5% share of all LTE devices. The LTE router, LTE module and LTE-connected tablet PC segments (2738, 1118 and 1088 devices respectively) are also large. USB modems are the next largest group at 316 devices identifi ed. Other categories being tracked include asset trackers (147), notebooks (98), cameras (59), smart watches (54), femtocells (45), vehicle on-board units (OBUs) (40), car hotspots (33), fixed wireless terminals/phones (26), as well as 5G CPE, drones, kiosk terminals, PC cards, POS machines, projectors, smart home devices, vehicle accessories, and voice translators.
©2019 GSA