According to ABI Research, numbers of subscribers to gigabit-capable LTE-Advanced Pro wireless services will reach 641 million in 2021. LTE-Advanced Pro is regarded as an intermediate step on the way to 5G technology, which is expected around 2020.
ABI says deployments of LTE-Advanced Pro, a successor to current LTE-Advanced networks, are gaining momentum across the world. LTE-Advanced Pro is available in different flavors and covers a range of use cases. ABI forecasts global subscribers for high-speed data throughput will exceed 641 million in 2021, with 87% in the Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe regions.
"LTE-Advanced Pro continues to bring substantial enhancements to the wireless network," said Lian Jye Su, senior analyst at ABI. "Gigabit Class LTE, one of the high-speed downlink throughputs of LTE-Advanced Pro, changes the way mobile users interact with their devices. End users can now access cloud-based applications and stream 2K and 4K videos on the go. And operators can also benefit through better network utilization."
To reach downstream speeds from 450 Mbps and up to 1.2 Gbps, LTE-Advanced Pro uses three-component carrier aggregation and above, 4x4 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna, and 256-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) downstream and 16-QAM upstream, respectively.
ABI estimates the global total subscribers for LTE-Advanced Pro to be 16.5 million as of the end of 2016. There are approximately 120 LTE-Advanced Pro trials or commercial deployments. Australia's Telstra launched its Gigabit Class LTE service in January. Other deployments include AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States, NTT DoCoMo in Japan, and SK Telecom in South Korea. Although current smartphones do not yet support gigabit LTE speed, ABI expects mass device production to occur later this year, as evident through the early gigabit LTE smartphone announcements from several OEMs at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona at the end of February and beginning of March.
"LTE-Advanced Pro gives mobile network operators a capex-friendly option to continue upgrading their networks," said Jake Saunders, vice president at ABI. "5G may be still out of the reach for many operators, but through incremental investment, LTE-Advanced Pro guarantees features that will generate new business cases for operators and better user experience for end users, all while preparing operators for 5G deployment down the road."
In related news, yesterday Sprint (NYSE:S), Qualcomm and Motorola Mobility deployed gigabit class LTE live on a commercial network in the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. The gigabit class LTE service utilizes three-channel carrier aggregation and 60 MHz of Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum in combination with 4X4 MIMO and 256-QAM to achieve Category 16 LTE downstream data speeds on a TDD (time division duplex) network. Sprint and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) demonstrated the technology at MWC '17.
In February, Parks Associates said 10% of U.S. broadband households are likely to cancel their fixed broadband service over the next 12 months in favor of wireless or mobile data services.
