LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) subscriptions will account for 45 percent of LTE subscriptions worldwide, representing more than 927 million subscriptions, by end-2018, according to a report from Idate. The report also shows that, while 2013 only saw early LTE-Advanced deployments in South Korea, 2014 will see more and more operators implementing this technology. In most advanced markets, 2014 will even see the beginning of services based on the aggregation of two sub-carriers of 20 MHz each and enabling Cat 6 throughput in the range of 300 Mbps in the downlink and still 50 Mbps in the uplink. Basebands and devices will be available shortly on the market. In 2015, carrier aggregation of 3×20 MHz sub-carriers is expected to be achieved to provide throughputs of 450 Mbps.
