Global LTE industry landscape

ALBANY, USA: While LTE adoption is moving at a much quicker pace than initial analyst expectations, a number of hurdles still exist that undermine the early adoption of LTE by many countries. Firstly, the limitation of the frequency spectrum presents a major setback for many network operators, as majority of the spectrum bands suitable for LTE are yet to be fragmented in many regions.

The 800 MHz 'digital dividend' band covered primarily by television broadcasters, in particular, has caused setbacks for many countries in Western Europe, a region where LTE is financially feasible. Furthermore the requirements for initially high investments and economies of small scale production have challenged early adoptions for most developing countries in the Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions.

Nonetheless, LTE's distinct long term advantages such as high data rates, capacity enhancement and OPEX reduction are likely to drive large scale adoption in a majority of countries worldwide by 2015.