Riding the LTE Juggernaut

Despite obstructions and cliched arguments, Asian service providers are discreetly deploying IPV6 in the end devices as specified by the LTE recommendations

It’s April 2012, and we are keeping our heads above the mobile data deluge, even if barely, thanks to a gathering avalanche of LTE networks. Even the wildest prognoses proved conservative as the GSM Association was betting on a more ‘managed’ progression through intermediate incremental increases, reasoning that the use of existing investments should be maximized while price declines and threats to existing roaming and SMS revenues had to be ‘managed’.

Going Live

Back in June 2009 there were no LTE networks operational. The Europeans were first off the mark with Teliasonera in Norway and Sweden mid-december 2009. In North America, Metropcs took the lead in September 2010 followed by Verizon Wireless in December.

Here in Asia, Hong Kong was first out of the starting gates with CSL going commercial on November 25, 2010 followed by Japan with NTT DOCOMO on December 24, 2010. In 2011, we saw Smart Communications in the Philippines in April followed by South Korea’s SK Telecom and LG U+ in July. Then we saw Australia’s Telstra and Singapore’s Singtel go live. The most recent network in the region to go live with LTE was South Korea’s KT on January 3, 2012.

The latest GSM Association figures show us that as of January 5, 2012, we have 49 operational LTE networks in 29 countries and 229 deployment commit-