A total of 331 operators have commercially launched LTE networks in 112 countries, according to the most recent Evolution to LTE report from the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), Telecompaper.com reported on Sept 17, 2014. The latest update reveals that 65 LTE networks have launched so far this year, with the GSA expecting the total number of commercial LTE networks to exceed 350 by the end of 2014. Once again, the most widely used spectrum for LTE deployments is 1800 MHz (3GPP band 3), now used by 150 operators in 71 countries, or 45.3 percent of LTE networks. The next most popular contiguous bands are 2.6 GHz (band 7), used in 26 percent of networks, followed by 800 MHz (band 20), which is by far the most popular sub 1 GHz coverage choice for LTE.

The report also reveals that there has been a significant uptake in deployments of VoLTE-enabled HD voice service and LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation systems. A total of 71 operators in 36 countries (representing 21 percent of all operators) are investing in VoLTE deployments, studies or trials, with 10 operators having launched HD voice service using VoLTE. Several more launches are imminent, according to GSA. In addition, 21 operators have launched LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation in 14 countries, while almost 1 in 4 operators (79 in total) have launched or are deploying or trialing LTE-Advanced technologies in their networks.