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Data from analyst house Ovum has revealed that LTE connections totalled over a quarter of a billion in North America in the first quarter of 2016. Growth in the Latin America and the Caribbean region was 268% year on year, second only to the combined Central and Southern Asia region.

Jose Otero, 5G Americas Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, said of the findings: “There have been three key drivers for LTE growth in Latin America during the last 12 months: increased geographic coverage of the technology, launch of services by new operators, and greater availability of lower cost devices. Although Uruguay, Chile and Argentina continue leading the region on LTE penetration, the near future will show higher adoption rates in Costa Rica and Panama.”

LTE connections in North America, which account for 57% of all mobile connections in the region, totalled 253 million. LTE penetration in the US was 73% on a population of approximately 322 million. LTE’s market share in Oceania & Asia Pacific and Western Europe was 33% and 26%, respectively.

Kristin Paulin, senior analyst at Ovum, said: “On a worldwide basis, wireless subscriptions of all technologies grew 3.4% year-over-year, while North America grew by 6.9% and even more notably there was a 7.2% growth rate in the US. LTE has hit the Americas region full-steam. LTE, and in a small part HSPA, are the only technologies growing in the entire Western Hemisphere.”