LTE Case Studies Overview

This chapter primarily provides a summary table of every country and every operator actively involved in launching LTE at the time of writing, namely June 2013. However, it begins with a brief summary of auction methods given that auctions have so far comprised the preferred method of assigning licences in the vast majority of cases. The discussion is kept simple because there is no evidence as yet linking auction type to financial outcome. This is followed by a brief section on coverage obligations and some comments on how to identify networks. The summary table contains entries for 140 of the 225 or so countries and islands in the world and each of these in turn lists the operators that either already have or shortly will have launched LTE. The great majority of these are discussed in the independent case studies in later chapters. Each table entry consists of the relevant country, operator, spectrum band used and launch date (where known in the latter two cases). Entries are restricted to national incumbents, but a lengthy footnote covers all the regional and other non-standard launches.