In its latest report, Juniper Research is talking about LTE, saying that the use of LTE networks is set for impressive growth. According to the research company, subscriber levels will attain 428 million by 2016 but will only reach 6% of the global subscriber population. Most of this growth is expected to occur starting from next year, with many mobile operators making preparations now in order to realize their roll out targets. Consequently, the total number of LTE base station deployments will reach almost 1 million by 2014.
Unsurprisingly, enterprise users will be the early adopters, with high-end data users migrating to the faster technology. However, during 2013 consumer subscribers will begin to sign up in volume and begin to overtake enterprises by 2015. LTE-enabled smartphones and tablets will dominate the LTE connected end user device market, accounting for 50% of the total LTE subscribers by 2016…
So there you have it. LTE will grow, but not as fast as we want to believe. And when you think about it, HSPA+ speeds are good enough for most folks for the time being…