Falling tariff prices and greater availability of 4G handsets like Apple's iPhone 5s could mean that the number of LTE connections will pass one billion worldwide by 2017.
According to a new study by research group GSMA Intelligence, LTE will account for about one in eight of the more than eight billion total mobile connections in four years' time, up from 176 million LTE connections at the end of 2013.
GSMA estimates that there will be 500 LTE networks in service across 128 countries by 2017, roughly double the number of live LTE networks today.
"Since the launch of the first commercial 4G-LTE networks in late 2009 we are seeing deployments accelerate across the globe," Hyunmi Yang, chief strategy officer at the GSMA, said of the report.
He added that the availability of affordable LTE devices and the implementation of innovative tariffs are encouraging adoption of LTE high-speed data services.
The study calculates that about 20 per cent of the global population is currently within LTE network coverage range. As operators continue to expand LTE coverage over the next few years, it is forecast that LTE networks will be available to half of the world’s population by 2017.
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