LTE to reach 592 million by 2016: Pyramid

LTE is expected to reach 592 million subscriptions, equivalent to 7.3 percent of all cellular subscriptions by 2016, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Till date, 35 mobile operators have launched commercial LTE networks, 197 devices are available and the technology is growing since the first network became live in the year 2009.

''LTE has already overtaken WiMax subscriptions in 2011, and the range of LTE devices has increased eleven fold in the past year. The largest LTE device segment will be PCs through 2014, as operators initially focus on mobile broadband access for PCs. But after 2014, the PC segment will be replaced by smartphones, with operators announcing more and more LTE models,'' said Jan ten Sythoff, Pyramid Research analyst.

The heavy emphasis on videos will drive mobile data usage for operators, as will be the fact that LTE is well-suited for cloud-based computing thanks to its high bandwidth,'' he further added.