Huawei's LTE revenue forecast to hit $2B this year

Huawei Technologies says its LTE products are estimated to help generate revenue exceeding US$2 billion as carriers across the globe roll out their networks. 

The Chinese networking equipment maker, though, said prices of LTE (long-term evolution) smartphones would still need to drop before the 4G technology reached mainstream adoption, according to a Reuters report. Speaking at a media briefing Wednesday in Singapore, executive vice president for Huawei's LTE business Peter Zhou revealed that there were 100 million LTE users in the world today, accounting for only a small pocket of the overall mobile subscriber base. He expects this number to reach 1 billion in 2016, or over half of total mobile subscribers. 

Zhou said in the report that by 2015, a multimode smartphone--which includes LTE--will have a price tag similar to that of a typical smartphone, helping to drive up adoption of the 4G technology.

According to January 2012 estimates from IHS iSuppli, LTE equipment will dominate wireless infrastructure budgets this year, climbing to US$24.3 billion from just US$8.7 billion in 2012. 

Huawei's LTE revenue spiked to US$1 billion in the first half of this year, following a quiet 2012, and was expected to surpass US$2 billion by end-2013, said the company's vice president for wireless marketing, Bob Cai.

The Chinese networking vendor last month estimated there were some 200 LTE networks operating in 75 countries, with another 200 in progress or planned. M1 in Singapore, Genius Brand in Hong Kong, 2Degrees in New Zealand, and Telenor in Norway are among Huawei's LTE customers.