Despite the buzz about LTE, only 11% of total cellular subscriptions worldwide are 3G, according to In-Stat. By 2013, the percentage will rise to 28%. Meanwhile, LTE is moving beyond talk and into real contract awards.
HSPA is the main beneficiary of the drive to 3G as it leads both new deployments and contract awards so far in 2009. Ericsson and Huawei Technologies 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," says Allen Nogee, 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."
In-Stat added that during the first quarter of 2009, there were nine WiMAX 802.16e networks deployed worldwide, mainly in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe. However, 2G is far from dead. There were still new contract awards for 2G infrastructure in first-quarter 2009, according to In-Stat.
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