Telecom service providers to migrate to 4G: Frost & Sullivan

With the current third generation (3G) networks proving incapable of handling the growth in mobile data traffic, mobile operators in India, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. are soon expected to migrate to 4G technologies to accommodate the surge in data traffic.

The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) are the two competing 4G technologies expected to drive the growth in mobile broadband, globally, according to Frost & Sullivan.

This surge in use of mobile broadband has been attributed to the proliferation of smartphones and smart devices, along with the increasing use of social networking and blogging tools, amongst others.
 
Mobile broadband is also gaining momentum because of the users' need for seamless mobility and continuous Internet connectivity. The increasing popularity of bandwidth-intensive mobile applications has further boosted the use of mobile broadband.

To sustain the momentum, mobile operators in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are progressively committing themselves to LTE technology, thus moving towards 4G services.

India is one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the region, witnessing high subscriber growth year-on-year.

Frost and Sullivan estimates an annual growth of 9.7 percent in the mobile subscriber base, to reach 1,440 million subscribers at the end of 2017, and mobile penetration reaching 110.6 percent.