Evolution to LTE report October 26, 2016 4G MARKET and TECHNOLOGY UPDATE INTRODUCTION LTE Market Status LTE is a global success with 1.453 billion GSA’s Evolution to LTE report – OCTOBER 2016 subscriptions by Q2 2016. LTE connects almost 1 in 771 operators investing in LTE in 195 countries 5 mobile users worldwide (19.5%). New subscriptions signed up during Q2 2016 at an average of 53 million • 744 operator commitments in 190 countries per month. LTE is the fastest developing mobile • 27 pre-commitment trials in 5 more countries system technology ever. 537 commercially launched LTE or LTE- LTE is specified by 3GPP as a single global standard Advanced networks in 170 countries for paired and unpaired spectrum users. The vast majority of the standard is the same for FDD & TDD. incl. 80 LTE TDD (TD-LTE) launched in 47 countries GSA’s Evolution to LTE report provides an 166 launched networks are LTE-Advanced independent in-depth status view and analysis of the or LTE-Advanced Pro in 76 countries global 4G/LTE, LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro market, supported by facts, and confirms the GSA forecasts 560+ commercially launched trends. Information is researched and verified by LTE networks by end 2016 GSA. This report is updated quarterly and referenced 6,504 LTE user devices announced widely by industry and across the whole ecosystem. (GSA – October 10, 2016) 1.453 billion LTE subscriptions globally: Q2 2016 In this report: © GSA www.gsacom.com Page Introduction 1 - 3 LTE deployments: operators, countries, regions 3 - 91 LTE-Advanced / LTE-Advanced Pro networks LTE-Advanced global status 92 - 101 VoLTE, EVS, ViLTE global status 102 - 103 LTE TDD global status 104 LTE1800 global status 105 - 107 APT700 global status 108 - 101 LTE Broadcast / multicast (eMBMS) 108 - 110 LTE-Advanced Pro background 111 LTE deployment commitments, studies, trials 111 – 117 LTE subscriptions / charts 117 LTE user devices ecosystem 118 About GSA, links, LinkedIn groups 119 LTE networks growth globally 2009-2016 12 operators commercially launched LTE- Advanced Pro networks 158 operators in 72 countries are investing in VoLTE deployments, studies or trials 93 operators launched VoLTE-HD voice in 52 countries 254 operators (47.3%) in 111 countries use Related charts and maps are available together with 1800 MHz in commercial LTE networks short topic “Snapshot” reports from www.gsacom.com 1 Evolution to LTE report October 26, 2016 4G MARKET and TECHNOLOGY UPDATE The drive towards LTE, LTE- In some regions 450 MHz spectrum is attracting Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro interest for rural coverage, and for M2M service for operators is more capacity, applications. LTE450 is commercially launched in a performance management and several markets. improved efficiencies to lower delivery cost. LTE is a big step in the LTE radio network products incorporate several user experience, enhancing demanding apps such as features to simplify building and management of next- interactive TV, video blogging, advanced gaming, and generation networks. Plug-and-play, self- professional services. Deployment of LTE-Advanced configuration and self-optimization simplify and carrier aggregation technology is the major industry reduce network rollout and management cost. LTE is trend, and interest in LTE-Advanced Pro is high. being deployed alongside simplified, IP-based core and transport networks that are easier to build, LTE is a full IP network and harmonizes with other maintain and introduce services on. The 3GPP core radio access technologies and is the natural evolution network has also undergone System Architecture choice for GSM/HSPA, CDMA and WiMAX™ Evolution, optimized for packet mode and the IP- operators, enabling a single unifying global standard Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) to support all access technologies, including fixed access. This allows: supporting with TDD & FDD modes. § Improvements in latency, capacity, throughput Spectrum for LTE deployments § Simplification of the core network, and optimization for IP traffic, services, and growth Pressure for spectrum is high and operators should § Simplified support and handover to non-3GPP deploy the most efficient technologies using paired access technologies spectrum where available. LTE can be deployed in The resulting evolved packet system comprizes the existing 2G or 3G bands and/or new bands e.g. 2.6 core network, evolved packet core (EPC) and radio GHz or digital dividend spectrum (700/800 MHz) for network. The whole system is often called LTE. more geographical coverage and improved in-building performance. 2.6 GHz is the capacity band in most Category 4 (Cat 4) is an evolutionary step, enabling regions. There is high interest in refarming 2G 150 Mbps peak downlink data speed when allocating spectrum for LTE. 1800 MHz (band 3) is the 20 MHz of LTE transmission bandwidth. mainstream choice for LTE in most regions. Deployment of LTE-Advanced technology is the 700 MHz (bands 12, 13, 14 and 17) and 800 MHz major industry trend in all regions. Carrier (band 20) are firmly established, according to region, aggregation was the first feature to be as the main LTE bands arising as the “digital commercialised and facilitates higher data throughput dividend” from the migration of TV broadcasters from rates, more efficient use of spectrum assets for analogue to digital transmission. Adoption of the network operators, and an enhanced user experience APT700 MHz band plan by over countries across the of mobile broadband. Numerous LTE-Advanced Pro APAC and Latin America regions and in Europe trials and deployments have been announced and represents a major opportunity for near-global completed in 2016, ushering in the Gigabit era for spectrum harmonization for LTE deployments, paving enhanced mobile broadband service. A new report the way for ensuring the greatest economies of scale about the status of LTE-Advanced Pro for devices and capacity for mobile broadband developments will be published by GSA shortly services, and for roaming. The FDD plan and regularly updated. LTE-Advanced Pro also configuration (band 28) has attracted most support. includes support for the Internet of Things (IoT), Several mobile networks use APT700 band 28 in including the NB-IoT Low Power Wide Area standard. commercially launched networks; see later in this See GSA’s The Evolution to Narrow Band Internet report. GSA is not aware of any country or regulator of Things report for the latest status. anywhere in the world firmly adopting or recommending allocation of spectrum in the TDD The introduction of HD voice services for LTE users (band 44) arrangement. enabled by VoLTE is also developing quickly globally. 2 Evolution to LTE report October 26, 2016 4G MARKET and TECHNOLOGY UPDATE Commercialization of LTE Broadcast, enabled by eMBMS technology, continues to progress well. LTE networks, developments global round-up LTE TDD (TD-LTE) systems Americas LTE is an open standard developed by 3GPP. The advanced technological performance of LTE came with in-built flexibility to operate in either paired (FDD, USA or Frequency Division Duplexing, mode) or unpaired (TDD, or Time Division Duplexing mode) spectrum On September 21, 2010 regional carrier MetroPCS and various channel bandwidths – all with a single became the 1st US operator to launch LTE, and technology. Companies from around the globe offered the world’s first commercially available LTE contributed to the LTE standard and its evolution. The handset (Samsung SCH-R900/Craft™). Service emphasis was always to leverage synergies between launched in Las Vegas, then Dallas/Forth Worth, the two duplex modes to the largest extent possible. Detroit, Boston, Sacramento and New York. The Craft This allows operators to best utilize their current was also the first multi-mode CDMA-LTE handset. network assets, spectrum allocations and various MetroPCS later merged with T Mobile USA. bandwidth needs, while securing support, choice and economies of scale from the global vendor Verizon Wireless commercially launched LTE using ecosystem, and limit potential market fragmentation. 2x10 MHz of 700 MHz (band 13) on December 5, The result is major commonality of the LTE 2010. LTE is available to 98% of the population. specifications for the FDD and TDD modes – in fact Verizon also launched LTE in 2x 10 MHz of AWS the vast majority of the LTE standard is identical for spectrum and on May 19, 2014 announced its “XLTE” both modes, and the huge global success of LTE. service: compatible user devices select either 700 MHz or AWS spectrum where available. Most current LTE deployments use paired spectrum (FDD). The LTE TDD mode is complementary and Verizon Wireless deployed VoLTE and key LTE- the perfect choice for providing high-speed mobile Advanced features in 2014. The company has broadband access in unpaired spectrum. Several refarmed and brought into commercial use 1900 MHz operators have deployed both the FDD and TDD band 2 spectrum for LTE. LTE-Advanced is available modes in their networks. LTE TDD also provides a in 461 cities nationwide (August 29th, 2016) utilising 2 future-proof evolutionary path for TD-SCDMA, carrier (225 Mbps) or 3 carrier (300 Mbps) carrier another 3GPP standard, as widely deployed in China. aggregation leveraging spectrum from band 2, band 4 LTE TDD is an integral part of the 3GPP standard, or band 13, or using all three bands for 300 Mbps. implementing a maximum of commonalities with LTE FDD and offering comparable performance Verizon Wireless’ Advanced Calling 1.0 service with characteristics and similar high spectral efficiency. HD voice over LTE (VoLTE and video calling support commercially launched on September 15, 2014. In Within globally assigned IMT bands for mobile July 2014 Verizon announced plans to partner with services, significant resources are suitable for LTE Qualcomm and Ericsson on a supplemental LTE TDD. LTE TDD has been selected by most WiMAX™ downlink trial in 3.5 GHz spectrum. operators as their path to business growth.