Which LTE band is used in most deployments? What is the LTE band used by most operators?
There are many LTE networks deployed till now but 1800 MHz is the most popular band among operators. In fact over 37% of LTE networks are based on 1800 Mhz band. 113 LTE networks are deployed till now in 51 countries and the estimation is that 75 countries will have 209 LTE networks by end of 2013.
Out of 560 LTE devices announced till now 130 products supports 1800 Mhz band. Forty-two operators have commercially launched LTE1800 either as a single band system, or as part of a multi-band deployment, in 29 countries: Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Namibia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Korea, Tajikistan, UAE, and the UK.
- Coverage area approx. 2 times compared to deploying in 2.6 GHz band
- Possibility to re-use assets e.g. antenna cables of GSM1800 or WCDMA-HSPA2100
- Possibility to deploy multi-RAN with simultaneous LTE and GSM capabilities
- 1800 MHz band is widely available throughout Europe, APAC, MEA and parts of South America, and thus has the potential to be a core – and global – band for LTE deployments
- Operators often have sufficient bandwidth in 1800 MHz to secure the full benefits of LTE
- User device eco-system is building; a good choice of user devices available now
- Can be a transition strategy between HSPA and availability of new spectrum