LTE-Advanced network deployments have been increasing this year,...

LTE-Advanced network deployments have been increasing this year, ABI Research said Tuesday in a report, saying about 60 LTE-Advanced deployments, commitments or trials were underway during Q1. Twenty-two commitments were in Western Europe, 16 were in the Asia-Pacific region and five in North America, ABI said. Carriers are finding LTE-Advanced attractive because it includes the carrier aggregation (CA) feature, which allows carriers to “utilize all spectrum resources to increase data rates,” said ABI research analyst Marina Lu in a news release. “In France, Bouygues Telecom first utilized CA to launch LTE-Advanced in six cities in mid-June, 2014, while Orange France and SFR also announced they will commercially deploy LTE-Advanced.” Voice over LTE is also increasing its market traction this year, ABI said. The ABI report also said about 75 percent of the upcoming 4G spectrum auctions will be in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region or Latin America (http://bit.ly/1vE50N7).