Despite the buzz about LTE, just 11 percent of total cellular subscriptions worldwide are 3G,
according to IT market research and consultancy
In-Stat.
By 2013, In-Stat says, that percentage will rise to 28 percent.
According In-Stat, which says LTE is moving beyond mere talk, HSPA is the main beneficiary of the drive to 3G, as it led to both new deployments and contract awards this year. Yet, the researcher say, the 2G is far from dead. There were new contract awards for 2G infrastructure in the first fiscal quarter of 2009.
Given the market research firm, Ericsson and Huawei led the infrastructure providers in new contract awards for HSPA. The new, high-profile contract awards in 3G included China Unicom, Telecom Italia and Telefonica.
“The roll-out of 3G worldwide is important, but the story of the day is LTE becoming a reality,” said Allen Nogee, an In-Stat analyst. “LTE contracts have been awarded in Japan, Singapore, United States, Norway, and Sweden. Infrastructure leaders are far from decided; however, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Huawei are the early beneficiaries of the early LTE contract awards.”
During 1Q09, there were 9 WiMAX 802.16e networks deployed worldwide, mainly in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe.
The report provides a glimpse on the wireless technologies being deployed around the world and the analysis of trends related to subscriptions, contract awards, and deployments.
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Narayan Bhat is a contributing editor for MobilityTechzone. To read more of Narayan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Michael Dinan
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