North America makes up 57% of worldwide LTE connections

The growth of LTE connections has quickened in the past year, increasing nearly 50% from the end of 2012 to the beginning of 2013. North America makes up the majority of these 100 million connections, making up 57% of worldwide LTE market share.

Thanks to mature networks from AT&T and Verizon, as well as Rogers, Bell and TELUS, North America’s LTE growth is quickening, especially as it expands to lower-cost devices.

According to 4G Americas, a trade organization based in Bellevue, Washington, there are 22 commercial LTE networks deployed in North America, facilitating an increase from 38 million connections at the end of 2012 to an amazing 57 million in May 2013.

Despite making up just 12.7% of the global LTE rollout, North America is the fastest-growing segment of the technology’s user base, something that can be traced back to an early adoption scheme and enough available spectrum to avoid having to re-farm existing 3G networks.

4G Americas expects there to be 133 million LTE connections worldwide by the end of 2013, increasing to 400 million by 2015 and nearly a billion by the end of 2017.

Source: 4G Americas, Marketwire