[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-17-10] The environment for 4G LTE services in the U.K. consumer market likely will not match fast-paced rollout plans seen in the United States, according to research released Nov. 16 by Informa Telecoms & Media.
    Despite the United Kingdom’s rapid growth in demand for mobile data by smartphones and USB modems, current U.K. mobile network deployments are so dense that it would make the introduction of LTE “both an investment heavy and somewhat unjustifiable decision,” Informa Senior Analyst Dimitris Mavrakis said in the report.
    “It is not economically viable to upgrade current U.K. mobile broadband networks to address traffic demands and improve user experience until 2015. Traffic and subscriber behavior in the [United Kingdom] shows that current networks can handle current and future traffic with some upgrades,” he said.
 Informa’s report does not expect traffic congestion to start appearing in certain hotspot areas until 2013. As a result, the firm predicts that large-scale LTE deployments will not be seen as a profitable solution until. consumer behavior changes significantly.
    “U.K. mobile broadband operators are faced with fierce competition, while margins from voice are shrinking. By upgrading current HSPA networks, U.K. mobile operators will be able to meet traffic demands and alleviate capacity constraints until 2015, after which the upgrade to LTE may be justifiable since economies of scale for hardware will have reduced infrastructure costs. Plus, a complete LTE ecosystem will be established, including handsets and portable devices,” said Mavrakis.
    In the United States, companies such as LightSquared plan to roll out large-scale LTE deployments as early as next year. U.S. consumer market analysts have supported the LTE timeframe, showing strong growth capacity and the potential for long-term growth. If LTE were to be deployed in the United Kingdom in 2013, Informa estimates that deployment would cost regional providers an additional $58 million compared to upgrading existing networks. Given that costs-per-gigabytes are set to decline and that network deployment now is primarily coverage driven, Informa believes there is significant unused capacity in the U.K. network environment, which could boost cost-per-gigabyte levels above the average market values, the firm said in the report.

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