May 2023
LTE Device Ecosystem
Status Update
Status Update: End April 2023
GSA monitors and researches worldwide mobile broadband developments and publishes facts, statistics and trends. This report confirms
that 24,316 LTE user devices have been announced — including commercial 5G devices also supporting LTE — from 1,005 manufacturers, and
analyses the main developments and trends.
This report covers LTE frequency-division duplex (FDD) and time-division duplex (TDD) models, as well as LTE-related cellular IoT devices
standardised by 3GPP as user equipment Cat-M1 and -M2 and Cat-NB1 and -NB2.
LTE User Devices
Although 5G grabs the headlines, LTE still dominates global mobile telecom services. There are 816 operators with commercially launched
public mobile or broadband fixed wireless access networks (see GSA’s report NTS Database Snapshot: LTE and 5G Market Statistics, April 2023).
There were 6.2 billion LTE subscriptions globally by the end of 1Q21, according to July 2021 figures from Omdia. Given this huge market, it is not
surprising that there is a vibrant number of technology suppliers supporting operators with LTE networks and within that, a large number of
vendors selling a huge array of devices.
There are 24,316 LTE-capable user devices including frequency and operator variants from 1,005 suppliers catalogued in GSA’s GAMBoD
database, a 10.5% increase since May 2022 (see Figure 1).
The number of devices catalogued in the GAMBoD database has continued to grow rapidly, at an average growth rate of more than 2,600
devices per year for the past four years.
Figure 1. Growth in LTE user devices (count of devices in GAMBoD database, including commercial 5G devices supporting LTE)
LTE devices
5G devices
1,160
1,664
706
218
33
14,157
May-19
16,557
May-20
© Copyright 2023 Global mobile Suppliers Association
19,322
May-21
20,928
May-22
22,651
May-23
LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 2
Form Factors
The mobile phone accounts for the largest number of identified devices, with 12,730 models catalogued, including operator and frequency
variants, giving a 52.4% share of all LTE devices. The number of LTE-capable indoor and outdoor fixed wireless access customer-premises
equipment (CPE) stands at 1,093 devices, and the number of other LTE-capable routers (including industrial, enterprise CPE, routers, mobile hot
spots and other router devices) is 4,753 devices. The LTE module and LTE-connected tablet PC segments are also large, with 2,134 and 1,515
devices respectively.
Other categories being tracked include
USB modems (389 devices), asset trackers
(406), cameras (338), notebooks (165) and
smartwatches (119), as well as car hot spots,
vehicle on-board units, femtocells, fixed
wireless terminals and phones, data loggers
and IoT sensors, drones, kiosk terminals, PC
Figure 2. Count of LTE user devices by form factor, May 2023
Other CPE/router/hot spot
19.5%
Fixed wireless access
Tablet PC
CPE (indoor/outdoor)
6.2%
4.5%
Module
8.8%
USB modem
1.6%
Asset tracker
1.7%
cards, point-of-sale machines, projectors,
smart home devices, vehicle accessories,
intercoms, alarms, encoders, repeaters,
Camera
1.4%
robots, voice translators and wearable devices.
Figure 2 illustrates the proportion of LTE user
devices by form factor.
FDD Devices
Most devices operate in the FDD mode;
Phone
52.4%
Others
2.8%
Smartwatch
0.5%
Table 1. Main FDD frequency bands supported by LTE-capable devices
LTE FDD Band
Number of Devices
supporting the LTE-FDD mode, up from 18,979
1800 MHz band 3
16,268
in December 2021. This makes up 87.4% of
2100 MHz band 1
14,397
the 24,316 LTE-capable user devices known to
2600 MHz band 7
14,246
GSA.
850 MHz band 5
11,284
900 MHz band 8
10,895
800 MHz band 20
10,359
AWS band 4
8,085
1900 MHz band 2
7,905
APT700 band 28
5,634
700 MHz band 17
4,446
700 MHz band 12
4,445
700 MHz band 13
3,762
800 MHz band 26
2,974
The ranges of devices supporting 2100 MHz
800 MHz band 19
2,763
band 1 and 2600 MHz band 7 are also very
1900 MHz band 25
2,394
strong, representing 59.2% and 58.5% of LTE
800 MHz band 18
2,300
devices respectively.
E-AWS band 66
2,153
there are now 21,255 devices identified as
LTE networks are operating commercially in
many bands. The most popular spectrum for
LTE deployment is 1800 MHz band 3, which
also has the largest range of LTE-capable
device models: 16,268 user devices are
announced in the market, meaning that 66.9%
of LTE devices can operate using spectrum at
1800 MHz.
Notebook
0.7%
Table 1 details the frequency bands that are
Notes: Manufacturers have not declared operating frequencies for some products; certain products are carrier- or
most supported by LTE-FDD devices.
country-specific and are therefore not available in all markets; some devices are currently listed as band “other”.
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LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 3
LTE-FDD user devices reflect the diverse
Figure 3. LTE-FDD user devices by form factor
range of form factors of LTE-capable devices
Other CPE/router/hot spot
19.8%
generally. As above, phones make up the
largest proportion of all LTE-FDD device types:
11,487 phones are identified as supporting
FDD bands, representing 54.04% of all LTE-
Fixed wireless access CPE
(indoor/outdoor)
3.9%
Tablet PC
5.7%
USB modem
1.4%
Module
9.3%
FDD devices (see Figure 3).
Asset tracker
1.6%
TDD Devices
From the beginning, 3GPP decided that LTE
Notebook
0.5%
must support both FDD and TDD modes with
Camera
1.2%
the minimum possible difference between
the two. The emphasis has been on taking full
advantage of synergies between the modes.
Others
2.1%
Phone
54.0%
The result is that almost all parts of the LTE
Smartwatch
0.5%
specifications are the same for both FDD and
TDD.
Table 2. Main TDD frequency bands supported by LTE-capable devices
Device support for LTE-TDD is well-established,
LTE TDD Band
Number of Devices
with 11,637 devices; 47.8% of LTE devices in
2300 MHz band 40
9,417
GAMBoD support the LTE-TDD mode and this
2600 MHz band 41
8,145
in turn supports the growing number of LTE
2600 MHz band 38
7,775
operators using unpaired spectrum.
1900 MHz band 39
5,222
2000 MHz band 34
1,572
3500 MHz band 42
1,254
3700 MHz band 43
803
Table 2 details the frequency bands that are
most supported by LTE-TDD devices.
Bands 40 (2.3 GHz), 41 (2.6 GHz) and 38 (2.6
GHz) have the largest choice of TDD terminals,
with band 39 also being well-supported:
• Terminal support for band 40 is 80.9% of
LTE-TDD devices announced
• Terminal support for band 41 is 69.9%
• Terminal support for band 38 is 66.8%
Notes: Manufacturers have not declared operating frequencies for some products; certain products are carrier- or
country-specific and are therefore not available in all markets; some devices are currently listed as band “other”.
Figure 4. LTE-TDD user devices by form factor
Fixed wireless access CPE
(indoor/outdoor)
6.8%
• Terminal support for band 39 is 44.8%.
There is a good choice of multiband and dual-
Other CPE/router/hot spot
19.1%
Tablet PC
4.4%
Module
7.7%
mode FDD-TDD devices.
The phone is the largest device category
USB modem
1.5%
supporting TDD: 6,472 phones are included in
GAMBoD. Figure 4 illustrates the proportion of
LTE-TDD user devices by form factor.
Others
4.9%
Phone
55.6%
© Copyright 2023 Global mobile Suppliers Association
LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 4
User Equipment Categories and Feature Support
Category 4, 6 and 7 Devices
Many operators have launched or are deploying networks supporting user equipment Cat-4 devices. This offers a theoretical peak downlink
rate of up to 150 Mbps with a peak uplink of up to 50 Mbps on compatible networks. LTE-Advanced deployment is now well-established with
wide-scale commercialisation of carrier aggregation to combine different spectrum bands for greater bandwidth.
There are 10,375 devices, representing 47.7% of LTE devices, that support Cat-4 (excluding higher user equipment categories), an additional
2,377 devices that can support Cat-6 (enabling speeds of 300 Mbps for the downlink and 50 Mbps for the uplink) and 1,103 that can support
Cat-7 (300 Mbps for the downlink and 100 Mbps for the uplink).
Devices capable of supporting higher user equipment categories are on the rise too, as Figure 5 shows.
A significant proportion of high-end devices, Cat-20 to Cat-22, are also 5G devices — 75.8% of them, slightly up from 75.4% in the previous
quarter.
Figure 5. Number of LTE and 5G devices by maximum user equipment category rating, Cat-9 and above
LTE
5G
Cat-22
Cat-21
Cat-20
Cat-19
Cat-18
Cat-16
Cat-15
Cat-13
Cat-12
Cat-11
Cat-10
Cat-9
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Note that not all vendors publish details of user equipment category or uplink and downlink speeds. GSA holds user equipment category data
for 75.1% of the devices in its GAMBoD database.
For updates on global LTE-Advanced and gigabit LTE network deployments, see www.gsacom.com.
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LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 5
VoLTE, ViLTE and Enhanced Voice Services User Devices
Operators worldwide are investing in VoLTE, enabling a high-definition voice experience for LTE users, with 293 operators identified as investing
in VoLTE and 238 launched networks. In GAMBoD, GSA has recorded 3,634 VoLTE-capable devices, up from 3,622 in January 2022, including
carrier and frequency variants. Of these devices, 2,862 are phones, which means 24.2% of LTE phones announced are known to support VoLTE.
The number of ViLTE-capable devices listed in the GSA database is 473. Although video calling over LTE does not have to use standards-based
ViLTE, operators offering VoLTE-based high-definition voice services sometimes also support ViLTE-based video calling.
GSA has identified 185 devices supporting enhanced voice services.
eMBMS and Push-to-Talk Devices
There are 47 devices with support for LTE Broadcast services, most of which are CPE devices, hot spots and routers.
There are 233 devices supporting push-to-talk or mission-critical push-to-talk features.
Cellular IoT Low-Power Wide Area Devices
The majority of IoT low-power wide area devices are modules, although industrial and private network CPE and routers are a strong category of
form factor for LTE-1 devices, and there is a growing number of asset trackers, CPE and routers for these three categories (see Table 3).
Table 3. Count of cellular IoT low-power wide area devices by type
LTE Technology
LTE Cat-1
LTE-M (Cat-M1)
Characteristics
Devices Announced
Up to 10 Mbps;
917 (339 modules, 392 industrial and other CPE and routers, 86 asset trackers, 36
20 MHz
vehicle on-board units, 64 others)
Up to 1 Mbps;
616 (217 modules, 200 asset trackers, 112 industrial and other CPE and routers, 87
1.4 MHz
others)
Tens of Kbps to
NB-IoT (Cat-NB1)
hundreds of Kbps;
180 KHz narrowband
504 (209 modules, 143 asset trackers, 83 industrial and other CPE and routers, 35 data
loggers and IoT sensors, 34 others)
LTE Devices for Use in Unlicensed Spectrum
• 481 LAA devices announced
• 46 LTE-U devices announced
• 17 LWA devices announced
There are also 879 devices in GAMBoD that support LTE in the CBRS spectrum band (band 48).
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LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 6
The Expanding Range of LTE Devices
4G/LTE and 5G headlines often focus on ever-rising performance
GSA as the source. Search criteria are:
• manufacturer name
milestones and successes of networks and device capabilities. It is
• product model number or name
equally important that there is a good choice of LTE user terminals
• form factor
to meet the needs of developing markets, where cost factors and
• FDD and TDD spectrum bands
flexibility are particularly important and can assist in opening new
segments in developed markets.
GAMBoD includes an extensive list of types of LTE-connected
terminal, including many produced by original equipment
manufacturers and original design manufacturers, as well as the
premium mobile phone and CPE brands.
GSA regularly reaches out to low-cost manufacturers and
suppliers of phones, tablet PCs, routers and others based in
• user equipment categories, including IoT device categories
• support for VoLTE, ViLTE and enhanced voice services
• support for eMBMS (LTE Broadcast)
• support for 4 x 4 MIMO
• support for 256 QAM in the downlink
• support for unlicensed bands LTE-U/LAA/LWA
• support for PTT and MCPTT over LTE
China, India and other locations, and includes many of their
• ruggedised products
products in GAMBoD.
• 3G fallback technology: HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+, EV-DO and
TD-SCDMA
If you have details about products you would like included in this
database, please contact us at research@gsacom.com.
Device Analysis Using GAMBoD
The GAMBoD device database is updated monthly. It allows users
We have also added 5G devices to the database with details about
new spectrum bands and 5G features. A separate report tracking
the growth of announced and commercial 5G devices is published
monthly. See https://gsacom.com/technology/5g/ for more details.
to search by supplier, form factor, features, peak downlink and
Access to GAMBoD is available to GSA members and associates.
uplink speeds and operating frequency. Results are presented as
Other companies can subscribe to GAMBoD. For more
lists, spreadsheets or charts.
information contact us at info@gsacom.com.
Charts may be used in documents or presentations, referencing
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LTE Device Ecosystem: Status Update | May 2023 | 7
ABOUT GSA
GSA is the voice of the global mobile
ecosystem and has been representing
mobile suppliers since 1998.
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of GSA activity and covers topics from
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networks, features and spectrum.
The GSA research team is constantly
following market dynamics and activity
to ensure the latest data is available to
GSA users via the GSA website.
Data is updated monthly and quarterly
and can be referenced by users who
register for free on the GSA website.
GSA GAMBoD Database
GSA reports are based on extensive data
contained in the GSA GAMBoD databases,
which is a resource available to GSA
members and associates. Companies
and policy makers can subscribe, as a
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© Global mobile Suppliers Association. 2023