A recent report from Juniper Research suggests that once the 4G mobile networks are launched global revenue from LTE mobile networks will grow exponentially, reaching $100 billion within a few years, with smartphones, laptops, and other devices driving them.

Despite this, numerous operators are cancelling flat-rate tariffs whilst the number and type of devices is growing.  A good example of this trend is tablet devices, where the majority those questioned by Juniper could not agree on a viable alternative to the current pricing models, whilst admitting that they need to be changed.

Three business models are evaluated in the report.  The most optimistic of these saw opportunities for more revenue and ARPU provided that operators adopted strategies of premium pricing in the case of enterprise users.

The report also warns that there are regions that will fail to see many users benefiting from the new high-speed services for several years to come, despite the numerous high-profile announcements by LTE enhanced operators.  Western Europe is one of the regions cited in the report.

The report's other findings include innovative approaches to pricing adopted by the industry, such as usage based tariffs and partnership models.  It also suggests that enterprise subscribers with high usage of video, email and web services will be amongst the first to adopt LTE and that therefore these companies should be targeted.

A five-year forecasting suite is included in the report, covering both consumer and enterprise subscribers.  All the hot LTE topics are included in the report, which represents the findings from a comprehensive survey.