LTE networks are commonplace nowadays; however, comparatively little is known about where (and why) they are deployed, and the demand they serve. We shed some light on these issues through large-scale, crowd-sourced measurement. Our data, collected by users of the WeFi app, spans multiple operators and multiple cities, allowing us to observe a wide variety of deployment patterns. Surprisingly, we find that LTE is frequently used to improve the {\em coverage} of network rather than the capacity thereof, and that no evidence shows that video traffic be a primary driver for its deployment. Our insights suggest that such factors as pre-existing networks and commercial policies have a deeper impact on deployment decisions than purely technical considerations.
@article{arxiv.1611.07782,
title = {What is LTE actually used for? An answer through multi-operator, crowd-sourced measurement},
author = {Francesco Malandrino and Scott Kirkpatrick and Danny Bickson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.07782},
year = {2016}
}