The number of operators committed to LTE network deployments has increased by 23%to 292 operators in 93 countries in the past year,according to the GSA.
To date 96 operators have launched commercial LTE services in 46 countries.This figure includes 11 commercial LTE TDD systems which are launched in Australia,Brazil,India,Japan,Oman,Poland,Russia,Saudi Arabia,Sweden and the UK.
The GSA's Evolution to LTE report said 347 telecoms operators in 104 countries are committed to commercial LTE network deployments or are engaged in trials,technology testing or studies.
GSA forecasts there will be 152 commercial LTE networks operating in 65 countries by the end of the year.
Deployments of LTE in re-farmed spectrum continue to accelerate,emphasizing the flexibility and growing importance of 1800 MHz as a prime band for mobile broadband services delivery.
LTE1800(LTE in 1800 MHz spectrum)is now launched on one third of all commercial LTE networks.Thirty-two operators,compared to five one year ago,have commercially launched LTE1800 either as a single band system,or as part of a multi-band deployment strategy.
Commercial LTE1800 services are now available in 24 countries:Angola,Australia,Azerbaijan,Croatia,Czech Repulic,Denmark,Dominican Republic,Finland,Germany,Hong Kong,Hungary,Japan,Latvia,Lithuania,Mauritius,Namibia,Philippines,Poland,Portugal,Saudi Arabia,Singapore,Slovenia,South Korea,and UAE.
The report also includes for the first time a status update of operator commitments to HD voice enabled by VoLTE and W-AMR codec technology,confirming numerous deployments and commercial launches.
