GSA confirms that 222 operators have commercially launched LTE services in 83 countries. Report also states that 474 operators are investing in LTE in 138 countries. Out of 474 operators, there are 421 firm operator commitments to build LTE networks in 128 countries, plus 53 additional operators engaged in various trials, studies, etc. in a further 10 countries.

Out of these live networks, 109 LTE networks were commercially launched in the past 12 months. According to the GSA statistics, the most widely used band in network deployments continues to be 1800 MHz (band 3) which is used in 43% of commercially launched LTE networks. The next most popular contiguous bands are 2.6 GHz (band 7) used in 30% of networks, followed by 800 MHz (band 20) which is used in over 12% of networks today.

In addition TDD mode is strengthening globally. So far 23 LTE TDD systems are commercially launched in 18 countries, of which 11 that have been deployed in combined LTE FDD & TDD operations.