Market intelligence firm iSuppli (IHS iSuppli) has predicted that the next generation (4G) of Mobile Broadband technology, Long Term Evolution ( LTE ), will cause related global mobile operator infrastructure spending to spiral upwards from just £921 Million ($1.5bn) in 2010 to £17.13 Billion ($27.9bn) by 2014 (107.5% CAGR).

LTE will allow UK mobile operators to offer peak internet download speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps (1024Mbps), although end-users will only see a small fraction of this (some predictions point to 8Mbps-30Mbps). By contrast the existing HSPA (3G) solutions offer download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps, although average performance tends to hover around the 1Mbps-3Mbps range.


Further estimates suggest that by 2014 LTE will be home to 303.1 Million subscribers around the world. However, according to Ofcom's current timetable, much of the UK's related spectrum auction and release programme will not be completed until the very end of 2013.

In other words the UK won't be able to experience the full benefit of LTE until 2014 and even then customers will need to buy new hardware (USB Modems etc.) in order to take advantage of it. Some mobile operators, such as O2 UK, are also mooting a two tier solution for LTE where only certain services would benefit from the faster speeds (here).