Over 20 percent of LTE operators have launched commercial LTE-Advanced services, according to the July report on market developments from the GSA. LTE-Advanced is now available from 88 operators in 45 countries. Fifteen LTE-Advanced networks support Category 4 devices (above 100 Mbps up to 150 Mbps peak downlink speed) while the vast majority, 73 networks (83%) support Category 6 devices (above 150 Mbps up to 300 Mbps), and most (37 networks) support the top theoretical peak downlink speed of 300 Mbps.
Two new maps released by GSA show where LTE-Advanced systems are commercially launched, and the other markets planning to introduce LTE-Advanced services. In addition to the 73 commercially launched Category 6 networks as noted above, another 22 are in deployment, trials or study phases. Twenty-five Category 9 and beyond systems are also in deployment, trials or study phases.
