LTE and VoLTE phones usage statistics

LTE is the industry standard for mobile connectivity especially in urbanized areas where customers get data speeds of up to 40mbps. But how prevalent are the devices that are capable of using it across the globe?

LTE and VoLTE networks growing rapidly

The first LTE network was deployed in December of 2009. Since then, the technology has spread across the globe driven by how quickly device manufacturers have included LTE components in their devices. Data over LTE has become commonplace in many urban areas, leading to the next phase of LTE evolution - VoLTE (Voice over LTE).

VoLTE is a type of mobile network which provides voice services using the LTE standard which can be used instead of 2G or 3G voice services. It is important to measure the number of devices capable of VoLTE so that infrastructure plans can be made, VoLTE services can be rolled out by carriers, and device manufacturers can decide whether or not to include VoLTE in their latest phones.

It is now very rare to release a new phone which doesn’t support LTE even in the lowest price category. Some of the most recent examples of LTE phones priced at around $100 include Lenovo Vibe C, LG K4, and Samsung Galaxy J1.

Device usage stats based on real traffic

Every quarter, the DeviceAtlas team produces a report on global mobile traffic which aims to highlight interesting trends and help many different industries understand the mobile landscape better. Our latest reports can be viewed here.

LTE is the industry standard for mobile connectivity. But how prevalent are the devices that are capable of using it across the globe?

The following graphs showing LTE and VoLTE phones popularity are measured in percent, using DeviceAtlas data.

LTE Capable Traffic

As you can see, across all of the included graphs, countries like Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK lead with numbers of devices capable of LTE surpassing 90%.

As of Jan 2016, there are 110 commercial network launches of LTE Advanced in over 55 countries according to Qualcomm.

If you would like to know about LTE usage and device capabilities across your country, please visit our Device Data page.