LTE usage is on the increase, that’s not anything new, but a new report suggests that changes to the mobile data landscape will be substantial by 2013.
LTE is expected to fetch $75 billion in revenues this year but that number will be climbing over the $340 billion mark by 2017, according to a Juniper Research report titled 4G LTE: Subscribers, Devices, Infrastructure & Service Revenue 2013-2017. The report suggests that 4G LTE will eventually account for around 31% of global mobile service revenues, something that will prompt service providers to do a little balancing in the run-up to these figures.
There are relatively few LTE subscribers in the global market and, while uptake will occur among consumers, services providers will find themselves having to walk a tightrope between paying for new infrastructure and increased data usage without driving off customers with excessively high prices. The cost of acquiring the spectrum for what is initially a much smaller market will also be a factor that service providers have to consider, at least in the early stages of the LTE rollout that is now taking place.
Juniper’s report also suggests that more than 70% of the world’s LTE revenue by 2017 will arise from the North America and Far East markets, with LTE users bypassing enterprise users by 2015.