ABI Research has forecasted that outdoor small cells will reach 500,000 units in 2013 in its latest report on outdoor small cells and carrier Wi-Fi Market Data. 1W and below small cell class will represent almost two-thirds of unit shipments in 2013, and continue to grow to overtake the higher power 5-10W microcell shipments during 2014.

GSA has confirmed that 145 operators have launched commercial services in 66 countries so far. GSA further reports that 104 new operators have committed to invest in LTE network deployments in 2012, raising the total number of committed operators to 330 in 104 countries.

According to a new ABI Research finding, an estimated 103 Million 4G LTE mobile devices were shipped in 2012. Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones provided LTE-enabled handset shipments a substantial lift in 2012. LTE-enabled handset contribution was put to 91 million in 2012 and the balance came from other mobile devices.

Global LTE smartphone shipments will grow threefold to reach 275 million units in 2013, reports Strategy Analytics. 90.9 million units are expected to be shipped in 2012.  Company forecasts that it will be a record year for 4G technology.

LTE subscriptions in North America has soared to 22.3 million, a increase of almost 19 million in 12 months at the end of the 3Q 2012. This represents 51 percent of all 43.7 million LTE connections worldwide, reports 4G Americas. 128 commercial LTE networks have been launched in 58 countries to date.

According to a latest small-cell market status report by Informa Telecoms & Media, 98% of mobile operator respondents believe small cells are essential for the future of their networks. Results are based on a survey with 280 respondents from around the world, although focused on Asia, Europe and North America and more than 30% of whom were operators.

A new Traffic and Market Report from Ericsson says that 85 percent of the world's population will have internet coverage via 3G by 2017 and there will be close to nine billion mobile subscriptions, compared to six billion by the end of 2011. Report expects mobile data traffic to grow by 15 times between 2011 and 2017.