The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) said 521 LTE networks had been launched by end-July in 170 countries worldwide and expects the total to rise to 560 by the end of 2016.
A total of 74 operators commercially launched LTE services in the past year with Bermuda, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Liberia, Myanmar, Samoa and Sudan among the latest places to get coverage, GSA said in a statement.
LTE investments are underway among 738 operators in 194 countries, of which 708 are firm network deployment commitments in 188 countries, and the remaining 30 are pre-commitment trials in a further 6 countries.
GSA said over 28 percent of LTE operators have commercially launched LTE-Advanced networks and 37 percent are in the process of deploying LTE-Advanced or LTE-Advanced Pro technologies in 84 countries.
It added that over 100 LTE-Advanced networks are currently compatible with Category 6 (151-300 Mbps downlink) smartphones and other user devices and that the number of Category 9 capable networks (301-450 Mbps) is significant and expanding.
Category 11 systems (up to 600 Mbps) are seeing commercial launches and Gigabit services are set to arrive by the end of 2016, according to GSA.
GSA has classified 9 of the commercially launched networks as being LTE-Advanced Pro, a standard that includes a new radio interface, the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT).
The most widely used spectrum for LTE network deployments continues to be 1800 MHz (3GPP band 3) which is used in 246 commercially launched networks in 110 countries and accounts for over 47 percent of LTE network deployments.
The next most popular band for LTE systems is 2.6 GHz (band 7), used in 121 networks, followed by 800 MHz (band 20), used by 119 LTE operators.
GSA also found that 146 operators are investing in voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments, trials or studies in 68 countries of which 82 in 43 countries have commercially launched, up from 25 in July 2015 and the total is expected to reach 100 by end-2016.
GSA last month said 5,614 LTE user devices were available from 455 suppliers, up 72 percent year on year, with the number of manufacturers participating in the LTE devices market up 49 percent in the same period.
