3G is no longer the be-all end-all of mobile phone networks as operators rush to roll out new 4G networks and apparently as of the end of September 09 one hundred mobile networks had LTE trial or commitments to trial underway reports an article over on infoworld.

More than 40 of said Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials are apparently accounted for in the Asia Pacific region and leading the way is operator in South Korea and Japan, and also 33 contracts for LTE equipment has been announced.

The first LTE networks are expected to begin rolling out sometime near the end of 2010, and according to ABI Research, they predict LTE subscribers to hit 32.6 million by the year 2013. Bhayya Khannam an analyst with ABI Research has said to keep up with exponential growth of mobile data operators must upgrade their existing 3G infrastructure.

Due to their eagerness for LTE, many operators have already started to upgrade their existing 3G networks to HSPA standard that enables operators to up their download rate up to 21Mbps, and nearly 200 networks have upgraded or going through upgrading their 3G networks to HSPA including in excess of 50 networks in Asia Pacific.

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