LTE connections in Asia Pacific increased 102 per cent from a year ago and passed the 100 million mark at the end of June, according to Ovum. The region had 34 LTE deployments across 16 markets.

Japan, Korea and Australia – the second, third and fourth-largest LTE markets in the world, respectively – accounted for a third of global LTE connections in Q1, Ovum said.

Across the region, LTE represented just over 9 per cent of total mobile broadband connections.

The key driver behind the growth has been a wider choice of LTE devices and lower prices.

Global LTE connections hit 250 million in Q1, with seven operators now having more than 10 million LTE connections. Verizon Wireless, with 48 million, and AT&T, with 38 million, accounted for 35 per cent of total LTE connections.

South Korea had the highest LTE penetration in the world, with 47 per cent of its connections 4G, Ovum said.

According to South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, 4G traffic accounted for 92 per cent of all the country’s data traffic in July, up 34 per cent from May. The average monthly 4G usage jumped from 2.3GB in April to almost 3GB in July. Data consumption has surged since the country’s three major mobile operators launched unlimited 4G plans in April. The country’s 33.2 million 4G subscribers account for 60 per cent of all mobile users.

Ovum said LTE is well established in North America, which has had no significant new launches this year. However, operators are expanding their network coverage. As of March Verizon covered 93 per cent of the population and AT&T covered 87 per cent. As of June both Sprint and T-Mobile had about 70 per cent population coverage.

Europe has seen ten LTE launches this year and now has 96 LTE networks in service. The UK leads in LTE connections, with over six million, while Russia leads Eastern Europe with more than two million.

The Middle East saw LTE connections increase 174 per cent to three million from a year ago in Q2. Africa had 22 live deployments by mid-2014 across 12 countries.

Ovum forecasts global LTE connections to exceed two billion by 2019 and account for a quarter of mobile broadband subscriptions.