It seems that major Japanese operator DoCoMo is seeing big success in its Xi LTE service as more customers continue signing up in big numbers. The Xi 4G mobile network has now attracted over 5 million subscribers with one million of those added over the last month alone. This continues the trend in other regions where the popularity of 4G networks is mounting.

Recently DoCoMo announced that one million customers had signed up in 6 weeks but another one million subscribers have now been gathered less than 4 weeks on. The LTE service is Japan is really taking off then and with maximum download speeds of 75MBps maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. The statistics are reflected by what’s going on in Korea too with the country’s SK Telecom also gaining over 4 million subscribers to its 4G service, partially due to the success of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III) with LTE connectivity. SK was also the first to announce a Voice-over LTE (VoLTE) service with improved voice call quality.

Meanwhile LG, another Korean firm, has now sold more than 5 million LTE-equipped smartphones across the world. Asia is very much a forerunner in the LTE market and early LTE growth and sales in Japan and Korea particularly shows this as a key market, according to The Next Web. This is backed up with statistics from ABI Research where a report shows an estimate of 61 million 4G phones and tablets being shipped worldwide this year. Another report, this time from Parks Associates, estimates that worldwide there will be 50 million active LTE device subscriptions in place.

It seems there’s no holding back with LTE growth then and we’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this, from wherever you are. Maybe you already use LTE in the US and can give us your verdict on the service you receive with AT&T or Verizon? Perhaps you live in the UK where early 4G testing is continuing, and wish you could access this service? Let us know with your comments.