Assessment of enabling technologies for LTE

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "Assessment of Enabling Technologies for LTE" to its offering.

This research service provides an assessment of the 3GPP LTE platform.

Research overview
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled LTE -- Insights on Technology Adoption provides an assessment of long-term evolution (LTE) based on its features, benefits, capabilities, and commercialization prospects.

This research service provides an analysis of LTE by offering in-depth insights into how the technology caters to the rising needs of the end user. Drivers and challenges influencing the LTE market are analyzed, and prioritization of these challenges is carried out using a challenge-assessment grid. This research service also provides strategic recommendations for countering these challenges.

This analysis is available through our Technical Insights program. With this program, clients receive industry-leading market research along with comprehensive, objective information that allows your company to mitigate risk, identify new opportunities, and drive effective strategies for growth.

Technology overview

4G technologies to significantly boost mobile and wireless industry
Next-generation wireless technologies such as LTE are set to spur the growth in the mobile and wireless industry. Service providers and mobile operators globally are upgrading their networks to accommodate fourth-generation (4G) technologies.

Stakeholders are working toward optimizing the existing assets to enhance their return-on-investment (ROI) in this industry. "Operators are constantly looking at interlinking existing technologies with long-term evolution (LTE) in the most efficient manner," notes the analyst of this research. "They are expected to focus on delivering value added data services prior to maintaining their telephony services, rather than undifferentiated broadband connectivity."

An important concern for operators is legacy migration. Operators in the wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) and evolution data optimized (EV-DO) networks have a compelling need to migrate to the LTE networks. High-speed packet access (HSPA) and HSPA+ operators have the flexibility to scale to LTE networks after the mass commercialization of LTE, when the adoption rates are higher.

Key operators, despite investing in LTE, intend to try third-generation (3G) HSPA+ wireless broadband before delivering LTE capabilities. Considering the huge capital expenditure (CAPEX) that LTE entails, most service providers are likely to migrate to LTE through deployments in HSPA and HSPA+ networks.

Service providers and operators have shown significant interest in LTE - an evolutionary technology from 3G. Competing technologies such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) are disruptive to the current carrier investments. However, the momentum is gradually shifting in favor of LTE becoming the mainstream 4G technology.

In that case, both next-generation mobile networks (NGMN) and 4G initiatives will provide LTE with optimum industry momentum to sustain itself over the long term. The mobile subscriber base is growing globally year-on-year. It is anticipated that there will be 1,800 million subscribers of mobile services for both voice and data by 2010.

The traffic on mobile networks has increased each year by almost 40 percent, mainly due to the wide reach of rich media applications on mobiles.

Mobile operators to consolidate investments in networks and rollouts
However, the most significant obstacles for the adoption of LTE are legacy migration and cost. In addition to infrastructure as well as operating or handset costs, it is also important to take into consideration the cost associated with the deployment of newer data-driven services.

"From the operator's perspective, there has been huge investment in 2G and 3G networks," explains the analyst. "Stakeholders in this domain are keen on first recovering the investment that has gone into 3G infrastructures before migrating to the LTE networks, despite benefits such as enhanced network efficiency and performance."

With buyer confidence steadily decreasing, it is understandable that stakeholders have concerns about the impact of the current economic problems on mobile operators' LTE rollout plans. As expected, based on the current market uncertainty, mobile operators have begun to consolidate their investments in networks and rollouts.

"Nevertheless, the new wave of popularity and industry consensus on LTE has helped several providers and operators renew their interest in the emerging technology," concludes the analyst. "Over 15 service providers globally have showcased their efforts for a commercial LTE rollout in the next two years."