World's largest carrier, China Mobile, to test TD-LTE service in March 2013

China Mobile, the world's largest carrier, is expected to begin testing its TD-LTE service in March, 2013. The carrier's proprietary 3G network is the reason why the Apple iPhone is not offered by the carrier, although that is expected to change once the LTE network is up and running. Last year, the mobile operator said that Apple had already agreed to build a version of its smartphone that will run over the TD-LTE pipeline. The testing of the TD-LTE network will start in Chengdu City, western China, with 1,200 TD-LTE base stations being operational. The trial will increase to 15,000 TD-LTE base stations in 21 districts in Chengdu. That figure includes 10,000 stations that will be upgraded from the current TS-SCDMA technology.

China Mobile's goal is to test 200,000 TD-LTE base stations throughout the country by the end of next year. Initial speeds will reach an average of 40Mbps downloading and 18Mbps uploading.  While China Mobile cannot yet carry the Apple iPhone, China Telecom and China Unicom can and the Apple iPhone 5 is expected to be launched on Friday from the two carriers.

source: Digitimes

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iPhone 5 pushes Apple to become world's second-largest LTE device maker, Samsung's lead narrows

Samsung retains its leading positions as LTE vendor, but for the first time around Apple has emerged as a strong runner-up, eating up nearly 11% of Samsung’s share in the third quarter of the year. Despite only having the iPhone 5 for a short while, Apple grabbed a confident 26.7% of the market, according to researchers from Strategy Analytics.

Samsung on the other hand slipped from a commanding 50.9% share of the LTE market, to 40% in Q3 2012.

4G LTE adoption has really sped up in the United States, with all three major carriers rolling out and expanding their networks across the nation. Japan and Korea also have a quickly developing 4G market, but apart from these three, there are little other markets where LTE is widely deployed.

When it comes to the actual devices, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5 have been the two most influential LTE smartphones.

LG which held strong positions also slipped after the iPhone 5 launch to 9.1% market share, down from 15%.

Overall, Strategy Analytics predicts that by the end of the year there will be around 50 million LTE subscribers across the globe, a big boom over the 9 million active at the end of 2011.

source: Strategy Analytics via Yonhap, The Next Web

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