Operators in 97 countries have launched a total of 263 LTE networks, with 112 networks launched in 2013 alone, the latest GSA statistics show.
A total of 508 operators in 144 countries are now investing in LTE, including 456 which have launched or made firm commitments to build LTE networks.
GSA president Alan Hadden said the organisation forecasts that there will be at least 350 commercial LTE networks by the end of this year.
“Key trends this year include more deployments of carrier aggregation and other LTE-Advanced features, growth in voice services enabled by VoLTE, and a significant expansion of international LTE roaming services. 2014 is also expected to be important for LTE Broadcast.”
FDD is the dominant LTE technology, and 1800-MHz the most widely used LTE band, accounting for 44% of commercially launched networks.
But interest in TD-LTE is also increasing – the GSA's research shows that for the first time, more than 10% of commercial LTE networks incorporate the TDD mode. Of the 28 TD-LTE networks that have been launched worldwide, 13 use both TDD and FDD modes.