The technology is commercially available in 49 markets, less than two and a half years after the first LTE-A networks were launched in South Korea in June 2013.

Worldwide there are now 430 commercial LTE networks, the industry group said. There are also an estimated 907 million LTE subscribers, a number expected to grow to 3.6 billion by 2020.

“We expect almost all operators to deploy LTE-Advanced, which has a vigorous roadmap of technological innovation,” 4G Americas president Chris Pearson said. “TE technology and its evolution will provide the mobile broadband foundation for future 5G technologies.”

(Source: omnitele.com)

The group's head of communications Vicki Livingston added that LTE-Advanced is still evolving, and will continue to do so even after 5G has been standardized.

“In October, the global standardization group, 3GPP, announced a new technology advancement moniker for the evolution beyond LTE-Advanced called LTE-Advanced Pro. This will be a stepping stone for future network needs as well as the 5G ecosystem,” she said.

“[Currently] 5G development is the focus of much of the industry; however, LTE-Advanced will continue to evolve with creative new features to serve customers for many years before 5G networks are commercially deployed in 2020 and beyond.”

Telecomasia.net