Asia-Pacific region now accounts for two-thirds of all LTE subscribers

6 Nov 2018
Joe Barrett

01 November 2018, London – The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) confirms that LTE now accounts for substantially more than a third of all mobile subscriptions globally (42%).  The latest data, provided to GSA by Ovum, reveals that there were 3.6 billion LTE subscriptions around the world at the end of June 2018, compared to 2.5 billion subscriptions a year earlier.

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region remained a strong driving force behind the global rise in LTE subscriptions, adding 806 million new LTE subscriptions in the twelve months to the end of Q2 2018, representing a 51% annual growth rate. The Asia-Pacific region now accounts for two-thirds of all LTE subscriptions worldwide.

The African market continued with the highest growth rate in percentage terms at 78%, whilst the Latin American and Caribbean region also sustained its rapid rise in LTE subscriptions with 52% year-on-year growth.

The Middle Eastern and North American LTE markets exhibited the slowest YoY growth rates, but both still demonstrated double digit rises in subscriptions.

Whilst LTE has been growing very quickly, the total number of mobile customers worldwide has been growing more steadily (up by just over 6% in the year). This is a consequence of a decline in the numbers of subscriptions to the main alternative technologies – W-CDMA (down nearly 3%, having reached a peak in 2016), and GSM (down 16% year-on-year, having reached its peak in 2012).

Joe Barrett, President of GSA, said, “The industry’s investment in improving LTE networks, with the addition of LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro features to improve services for customers, is paying dividends in terms of ensuring LTE’s continued attractiveness. Even though 5G will become a reality in many countries over the next couple of years, LTE is expected to be the predominant mobile technology for years to come, in fact increasing its share to as much as 60% of the global market by 2022.”

About the GSA
GSA promotes the 3GPP technology roadmap – 3G; 4G; 5G including NB-IoT, LTE-M, VoLTE, LTE-U, LAA, LTE Broadcast, mobile device availability and features, etc. and represents companies across the worldwide mobile ecosystem engaged in the supply of infrastructure, semiconductors, test equipment, devices, applications and mobile support services. The GSA Executive Board comprises Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung covering close to 100% of all mobile network infrastructure deployments.

For more information, please visit the GSA corporate website at www.gsacom.com. Follow the GSA on Twitter: @gsacom.

Media Contacts press@gsacom.com