LTE Strategies and Vendor Leadership (2013 Edition)

LTE SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

Ÿ  The industry is in the midst of a second wave of LTE rollouts, with a total 248 commercial LTE networks in 87 countries anticipated by the end of 2013

Ÿ  LTE-Advanced is gearing up for 4G prime time, with the 1st commercial deployment launched in June 2013 by SK Telecom

Ÿ  Heterogeneous solutions comprising macrocells, microcells, picocells and

metrocells are gaining momentum for both 3G and LTE networks

Ÿ  Operator respondents rate Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks as the top LTE equipment manufacturers, with Alcatel-Lucent close behind

LTE SURVEY SYNOPSIS

For its 2013 39-page LTE survey, Infonetics interviewed purchase-decision makers at 21 mobile, incumbent and competitive operators from EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, North America and Latin America that have deployed LTE or plan to trial or deploy it by 2014. Infonetics asked service providers about their LTE network build-out plans; deployment migration scenarios; challenges; technical and commercial drivers; LTE services, features and devices; and suppliers. The operators participating in the study represent 41% of the world’s telecom capex and 36% of the world’s telecom carrier revenue. 

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 2

FD-LTE RULES THE WORLD ................................................................................................ 3

W-CDMA to HSPA+ to LTE network remains mainstream migration scenario ..........................................4

LTE-Advanced trials are going gangbusters ..............................................................................................6

VOICE SERVICES OVER THE LTE RAN ARE GAINING SERIOUS MOMENTUM .............. 7

IMS is the universal VoLTE platform ..........................................................................................................8

2G and 3G service shutdown is not on the agenda ..................................................................................10

Single radio voice call continuity (SR-VCC) availability lost a bit of momentum . . . .................................11

. . . And LTE data and voice roaming is in limbo ......................................................................................11

INCREASING ARPU IS NO LONGER AMONG CHIEF LTE DRIVERS; WE’RE BACK TO BASIC LONG-TIME DRIVERS! ............................................................................................. 13

Asked in an open-ended question, the drivers are similar and interrelated...............................................15

Barriers continue to wane, only VoLTE immaturity pops up and that is a core issue ……........................17

Standard compliance is a key LTE requirement ......................................................................................18

. . . because use of and investment in current cellular data technology remains steady ..........................20

MME SCALABILITY WITH HIGH NUMBER OF SESSIONS REMAINS TOP EPC EQUIPMENT FEATURE .............. 22

eNodeB are expected to feature high throughput and high capacity ........................................................23

MACROCELLS RULE AND HETNET CONTINUES TO GATHER MOMENTUM .................25

Even for 3G network expansion, thinking is spread across HetNet variants ............................................26

ERICSSON, NOKIA SIEMENS NETWROKS ARE PERCEIVED AS TOP LTE EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS ....... 28

Again, manufacturers installed differ from our 1Q13 market share findings .............................................29

Service provider familiarity with manufacturers ....................................................................................... 31

Price performance is manufacturers’ chief selection criterion ..................................................................32

Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Huawei are seen as strong players .........................................33

BOTTOM LINE ...................................................................................................................... 35

METHODOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS ........................................................................... 36

Respondents are influential in the purchase decision . . . ........................................................................36

. . . and account for 36% of worldwide revenue and 41% of capex ..........................................................37

Mobile operators and incumbents are predominant, and the geographic distribution is more balanced than in previous years ..............................................................................................................................38

Year to year sample comparison .............................................................................................................39

Like last year, the sample is skewed toward 3GPP ........................................................ ........................39