Strategy Analytics: 4G LTE Mobile Broadband Pricing and Marketing Today Targets Early Upgraders

With 75 percent of smartphone users attracted by faster speeds, leading mobile operators are working hard on their marketing and pricing to showcase their LTE services, particularly as they look to offer new LTE handsets. Strategy Analytics examines the range of LTE marketing messages and pricing approaches seen to date in its new Mobile Broadband Opportunities (MBO) service report, "Taking LTE to Market: LTE Marketing Messages and Pricing Approaches." Leading mobile operators have launched commercial LTE services for modems, including: -- TeliaSonera in Sweden; -- Verizon Wireless; -- AT&T in the US; -- Vodafone and T-Mobile in Germany; -- SK Telecom in South Korea; -- NTT DoCoMo in Japan; -- CSL in Hong Kong; and -- Telstra in Australia. In the US, MetroPCS and Verizon Wireless offer LTE smartphones, and Verizon Wireless and AT&T offer LTE tablets. "In tracking LTE pricing for modems, Strategy Analytics has observed a range of pricing approaches, including introductory price discounts over 3G tariffs to encourage users to upgrade to 4G, offerings with various speed and data cap tiers, as well as bundling larger data allocations with higher speeds in premium tiers," noted Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director, Mobile Broadband Opportunities at Strategy Analytics. "Pricing innovation will accelerate as more LTE smartphones are brought to market. Now, MetroPCS bundles video content in its premium LTE handset plan." "Mobile operator marketing messages aim to motivate mobile users to upgrade to LTE by focusing on "faster" today, and promising new use cases in the future," added Sue Rudd, Director, Wireless Operator Strategies at Strategy Analytics. This Strategy Analytics report notes that nearly 75 percent of smartphone owners agree that a faster wireless network makes an operator or handset more attractive.