BuddeComm Intelligence Report - 4G LTE and WiFi - Global Trends and Statistics

Synopsis

The fast growth of 4G LTE continues in 2019 and it now accounts for almost half the market share of mobile technologies worldwide. 4G LTE is expected to continue carrying most of the mobile traffic for at least the next decade - alongside a slow transition to 5G. It plays a very important role in the future of 5G as it provides the backbone for the 5G evolution.

VoLTE developments have also become more significant, given they provide the basis for developing 5G voice services. Globally, VoLTE subscriptions are growing quickly. In large markets like China, which has the world’s largest mobile market, operators are investing in technologies designed to maximise the user experience such as Rich Communication Service (RCS), Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Near Field Communications (NFC).

The global mobile sector will also continue to benefit from Wi-Fi. It has established itself as the quiet achiever in the mobile broadband arena. Today, most heavy broadband use of smartphones and tablets takes place in homes, offices, airports, schools, universities, internet cafes and so forth - and in most of these situations the Wi-Fi networks are used for this, not the mobile networks.

The next generation networks, based on wireless technologies such as LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi as well as fibre broadband technology, are providing the building blocks for developments relating to M2M and IoT infrastructure. This will ultimately facilitate the development of the future smart cities, based on smart infrastructure.

This BuddeComm Intelligence report provides information and statistics on 4G LTE and WiFi technology including global analysis, statistics and regional comparisons. It includes country insights and statistics on the key growth markets of Brazil, Indonesia, India and China.

For information on 5G, please see separate BuddeComm report: BuddeComm Intelligence Report - 5G Global Trends and Leading Regional Countries 2019.