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4G LTE Mobile will be Targeted at Early Adopters

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, worldwide service revenues generated by 4G LTE mobile networks are forecast to grow rapidly -- once all the planned networks are launched, and when the early-adopters have subscribed -- eventually exceeding $265 billion by 2016.

While the total number of LTE consumer subscribers will be higher than enterprise in 2016, it is a different picture from a service revenue perspective, with the consumer segment accounting for under half of the total.

Premium service tariffs -- to provide high-end enterprise users with required guaranteed connections and/or service levels -- was identified as an important offering, to help derive the much needed incremental revenues to justify a carrier's investment in LTE infrastructure.

The study found that early-adopters of LTE will be mobile service subscribers who are currently in the higher echelons of monthly spend. This will be the case in developing countries as much as in developed countries.

Nitin Bhas, research analyst with Juniper Research, said "We believe that high-end enterprise users in developing countries will be much closer in spend to similar users in North America or Western Europe and certainly very distinct from the bulk of the population that contribute towards the high level regional ARPU levels for all generations, including 2G."

High traffic subscribers using video, web and email services on their smartphones will apparently become the critical early-adopter segment to benefit from 4G LTE services. In fact, their acceptance of new LTE offerings are the key market indicator to follow and assess.

Other findings from the market study include:
  • LTE enterprise ARPU is forecast to experience lower rate of decline than consumer ARPU.
  • Western Europe, North America and Far East & China will account for approximately 84 percent of total revenue worldwide by 2016.
  • LTE service revenue to represent in excess of 26 percent of total service revenues from all mobile services across all generations by 2016.

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