GSA says Investments in LTE-Advanced systems confirm global Cat 6 and Cat 9 growth trend

11 Aug 2015
Joe Barrett

August 6th, 2015: LTE-Advanced deployments have taken firm hold in all markets around the world with 131 i.e. over 30% of operators in 60 countries investing in LTE-Advanced system deployments, as reported in GSA’s July Evolution to LTE report. Carrier aggregation is the first LTE-Advanced feature to be commercialised enabling operators to efficiently combine spectrum assets to deliver an improved customer experience of mobile broadband.

A total of 88 operators, i.e. over 20% of all LTE operators, have commercially launched LTE-Advanced service in 45 countries. 15 LTE-Advanced networks support Category 4 devices (above 100 Mbps up to 150 Mbps peak downlink speed) but the vast majority, 73 networks (83%) support Category 6 devices (above 150 Mbps up to 300 Mbps) with most (37 networks) supporting the top theoretical peak downlink speed of 300 Mbps.

Two new maps released by GSA confirm the scale of investments by operators in LTE-Advanced systems worldwide, showing where LTE-Advanced systems are commercially launched, and the other markets planning to introduce LTE-Advanced services. [continues after image]

Alan Hadden, VP of Research, GSA said: “Investment in LTE-Advanced technology is the main industry trend. Strong growth is observed not only for support of Category 6 devices, but also in preparations by operators to support Category 9 terminals (above 300 Mbps up to 450 Mbps) and beyond.”

In addition to 73 commercially launched Category 6 systems as noted above, another 22 are in deployment, trials or study phases. [continues after image]

25 Category 9 and beyond systems are in deployment, trials or study phases.

More information (free to download reports via the links on http://www.gsacom.com)

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