According to the latest data from ABI Research, as of the end of 1Q14, there were about 60 LTE-Advanced trials, commitments and commercial deployments worldwide, of which 22 commitments were from Western Europe, 16 from Asia-Pacific and five from North America. In addition, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is gaining market traction this year, providing voice services alongside LTE mobile broadband in a reliable and profitable way.

"Carrier aggregation (CA) is the most important feature of LTE-Advanced, which helps mobile carriers to utilize all spectrum resources to increase data rates. In France, Bouygues Telecom first utilized CA to launch LTE-Advanced in six cities in mid-June, 2014, while Orange France and SFR also announced they will commercially deploy LTE-Advanced," said Marina Lu, research analyst at ABI Research. "Apart from CA, LTE-Advanced also incorporates other enhancements, like advanced antenna techniques, interference management, and efficient use of heterogeneous networks."

Globally, among the recently completed and near-term 4G spectrum auctions, about three-quarters of upcoming 4G spectrum auctions will take place in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa.

"To date, most of the mobile carriers in Europe and developed countries of Asia-Pacific and Middle East have already secured 4G spectrum," noted Jake Saunders, VP and practice director, ABI Research. "A major spectrum auction of 1,700MHz and 2,100MHz will take place in the United States in November 2014. Competition is expecting to be robust between the major United Sates carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, etc."

By: DocMemory
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