Gigabit LTE - a configuration of the LTE Advanced Pro standard - is on track to grow to account for 30% of total LTE subscriptions by 2026, according to ABI Research.
The research firm predicts that Gigabit LTE will grow to nearly 2 million subscriptions by the end of this year, which will be less than 5% of total LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions.
But the configuration is expected to grow to account for 70% of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions and 30% of overall LTE subscriptions by 2026.
ABI Research senior analyst Prayerna Raina said Gigabit LTE demonstrates that 4G still has a lot to offer.
“Gigabit LTE... is a critical network milestone for operators in an increasingly competitive environment in the evolution to 5G,” he said. “It is essential for operators to support the ever-rising bandwidth needs of consumers, while also upgrading the network to support 5G networks in future.”
The first Gigabit LTE service for mobile devices was launched in the US by Sprint in March. Australia's Telstra meanwhile launched a Gigabit LTE mobile hotspot service in Sydney in February and is expected to support Gigabit LTE mobile devices as they become available.
Market trends indicate that LTE Advanced and Gigabit LTE will coexist with 5G for some time, Raina said.
“Today, operators globally are in various stages of upgrading their LTE networks. Over the next four to six years, we expect mobile networks to evolve considerably with the proliferation of LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and Gigabit LTE on one hand and the launch of 5G on the other hand,” Raina said.
“The vendor ecosystem is essential to this network evolution with device availability being critical for the service launch. It is, therefore, imperative for vendors to align their competitive strategies with the operators’ network transition timeline as well as alliances in the ecosystem.”
LTE overall is meanwhile forecast to grow to account to around 30% of total mobile subscriptions this year and 50% by 2024, ABI Research forecasts.