The number of commercial LTE networks in the world will reach 460 by the end of this year, the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) predicted on Thursday, upping its forecast as operators come to market quicker than expected.
The industry body had previously said it expected to see 450 commercial LTE networks by the end of 2015.
To date, 393 operators have launched LTE in 138 countries, with 107 new LTE operators added in the last year, the GSA said. In total, 607 operators have made a firm commitment to LTE, while an additional 39 are undertaking pre-commitment trials.
In addition, 116 operators are investing in carrier aggregation technology and 64 have launched LTE-Advanced.
And voice over LTE (VoLTE) is gaining traction too.
"Interest in VoLTE has surged and over twice as many operators are investing in VoLTE compared to a year ago," said Alan Hadden, VP of research at the GSA.
"16 operators have launched HD voice service[s] enabled by VoLTE in seven c ountries, compared to only three launched in March 2014," he added. "Many more launches will happen in 2015."
Most operators have deployed the FDD variant of LTE, but a growing number are also looking at the TDD variant. 54 operators have commercially launched TD-LTE, including 16 that have deployed both TDD and FDD.
"Converged LTE networks with both FDD and TDD modes deployed is a growing priority for many operators," the GSA said.
