Juniper Research: 6% of the global subscriber population will use LTE by 2016

LTE, Long Term Evolution, has just kicked off in Canada. Two of our carriers, Rogers and Bell, have successfully launched their LTE network an offer it up in limited coverage across various Canadian cities. As for speeds, marketing shows that “theoretical download speeds of up to 100 Mbps”, but in our testing we’re seeing between 12 Mbps to 45 Mbps. TELUS, SaskTel and MTS have all committed to bringing LTE speed to their customers by “early 2012”. There’s no word on how many Canadian customers have signed up for an LTE device and plan, but during the Rogers Toronto launch VP and CMO John Boynton stated that LTE sales “going very well”.

A new report published by Juniper Networks states LTE will see a “rapid uptake” within the next 5 years, but only a total of 428 million customers by 2016, representing 6% of the world’s population. Similar to what will happen here in Canada next year, Juniper believes that “most of this growth is expected to occur from 2012 onwards”. It’s unconfirmed, but most likely the people who are signing up for LTE are businesses, mainly due to the increased cost compared to the other “4G” network. Juniper reports that sometime in 2013 the number of consumers subscribers will increase and eventually overtake enterprise subscribers by 2015.

Juniper analyst Nitin Bhas said “With LTE being offered as a premium level service initially, enterprise subscribers will be attracted by the improved data speeds and the service guarantees that will be offered. The emerging factor that will drive consumer take-up later in the forecast and beyond is the embedding of LTE technology in consumer devices.”

In Canada there are several data sticks, tablets and smartphones that are currently offered by Bell and Rogers. Smartphones, aka “Superphones”, include the HTC Raider, Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, LG Optimus LTE and as for tablet we’ve seen the HTC Jetstream and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is coming soon.

We recently held a poll titled “When LTE comes to your city will you buy?”, after 2,597 votes 54% (1,391) said “no”, while 23% (607) said “yes”. Undecided was sitting at 20% (512), while 3% (87) needed more education on “What’s LTE”.

Source: Juniper
Via: IntoMobile