According to a latest Ericsson mobility report, global mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2019, and more than 60 percent of these will be for smartphones. WCDMA/HSPA networks are predicted to cover 90 percent of the world's population by 2019.

During 2013 there have been at least 15 smartphones launched to date, and there might well be some more before the year is out. While many of these have really more or less sneaked in by the back door, others have been heralded by bugle calls from the roof and other hype generating publicity blazes.

TETRA has been very successful in delivering mission critical voice with simultaneous narrowband data services for emergency services and other sectors, and as with all successful technologies the price has decreased over time, whilst the level of functionality has increased.

A recent ABI Research report expects LTE deployments to deliver population coverage of 57% (4.2 billion) by 2018 while legacy WCDMA and CDMA2000 to cover 31% (2.3 billion). Out of 470 LTE commitments tracked by the company, 193 have gone commercial.

Javier Arenzana Arias, director Rich Communication Services, Telefonica, Spain is speaking at the LTE Operator Mind Share, part of the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 24th June at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands.