Analysts foresee victory for LTE on 4G

The growth of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband networks is poised to explode over the next four years, according to analysts.

Research firm IHS iSuppli said that LTE networks will have over 303 million users by 2014, placing the technology in a dominant position over the competing WiMax, which IHS iSuppli forecasts to reach just 33.4 million users by 2014.

LTE has recently secured chipset support from ARM, and the backing of a number of high-profile service providers. Vendors such as Vodafone, TeleSonera, Verizon and AT&T have announced plans to offer LTE as the platform for upcoming 4G networks.

WiMax is still the leader with 6.8 million subscribers compared to roughly 700,000 for LTE at the end of 2010, but IHS iSuppli predicts that LTE will close the gap in 2011 by expanding to 10.4 million users compared to 14.9 million for WiMax.

Much of the growth is expected to take place between 2012 and 2014, when LTE will grow from 49.6 million subscribers to 303.1 million. WiMax, by comparison, is expected to moved from 21.8 million to 33.4 million over the same period.

"With WiMax enjoying a two- to three-year head start in next-generation network deployments, it presently enjoys a major advantage in market share in the 4G segment," said IHS iSuppli principal wireless research analyst Francis Sideco.

"However, with LTE supported by most of the leading wireless operators worldwide, it will rise to surpass WiMax in 2012 and then dominate worldwide during the following years."