4G LTE revenues projected to exceed $100bn globally in 2014, despite uncertainty about new data plans - report

09 November 2010

According to a new report from Juniper Research, worldwide service revenues generated by LTE mobile networks are forecast to grow quickly once networks are launched, reaching $100 billion by 2014. These revenues will be driven by laptops, smartphones and other devices, it says.

Paradoxically, says Juniper, several operators are ending flat rate tariffs, whilst at the same time the number and variety of connected data-hungry devices is multiplying. Tablets are a recent example, it says. Whilst Juniper found that 90% of respondents questioned believe that today’s pricing models will have to change, there is a lack of consensus about the structure of new pricing models.

4G LTE Business Models report author Howard Wilcox noted: “In the new report, our business modeling evaluated three scenarios. The most optimistic view revealed scope for higher revenues and ARPU if network operators adopt premium pricing strategies for enterprise users.”

However, the report warns that whilst there continue to be high profile LTE announcements by network operators, some regions will not see substantial numbers of users benefiting from these high speed services for up to three years. Western Europe is an example.

Further findings from the 4G LTE report include:

• The industry is thinking “out of the box” to originate innovative approaches to pricing such as partnership models and usage based tariffs      
• High traffic enterprise subscribers using web, email and video services will be the early adopters of LTE and are the key segment to be targeted      
• Revenues from consumer users will remain under half of total revenues until at least 2015.