Japan's NTT DoCoMo will spend more than $3.8 billion to nearly double its number of LTE base stations in operation to cope with surging data demand.
The company has allocated 400 billion yen ($3.85 billion) in LTE capex for the financial year ending in March 2015, The Japan Times reported, citing company officials.
Through the investment, the company aims to increase its number of LTE base stations to around 100,000, up from 52,000 at the end of last financial year.
The planned expenditure is a 20% increase on the company's LTE capex budget for the prior year, but the increased spending is necessary to meet customer demand for video and other data content across Japan, the officials said.
DoCoMo last week launched international LTE roaming in eight countries and regions. The operator was one of the first in the world to launch LTE services – its network went live in December 2010.
Rivals KDDI and Softbank also plan significant investments to augment their respective LTE networks this year.