LTE subscriptions reach 6.4 million in Q4'2011 and account for 0.1 percent of global cellular network subscriptions

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "2G, 3G & 4G Cellular Network Subscriptions Database Q1'2012" directory to its offering.

With 6.1 billion global cellular network subscriptions, the year 2011 has seen mobile penetration levels reach over 87 %. From an operator perspective, China Mobile is leading the market with over 650 million subscriptions. Indian operators (primarily, Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance, Idea Cellular, BSNL, etc) also constitute a considerable market share with over 928 million subscriptions.

Mobile broadband has also seen considerable growth with 3.5 G HSPA subscriptions reaching 566 million, EV-DO subscriptions reaching 272 million, and 4G LTE subscriptions reaching 6.4 million. LTE subscriptions that currently comprise only 0.1 percent of the market will significantly grow over the next five years, eventually representing more than 8 percent of the market in 2016.

Presently, US operator, Verizon Wireless and Japanese operator, NTT DoCoMo, are leading the LTE market with market shares of 63 percent and 22 percent, respectively, driven by their early adoption of LTE technology.