Nokia Siemens Networks achieved the largest increase for LTE market share in the third quarter of 2012, growing from 13% to 21.5% and nearly closing the gap with the market leader, According to Infonetics.

“Nokia Siemens Networks jumped from four to second spot in the LTE equipment market after more than doubling its LTE revenue in 3Q12, significantly closing the gap with market leader Ericsson and passing Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei”, the report said.

“We saw strong LTE activity in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea in the third quarter, contrasted by weak activity in the BRIC countries, for a total 30% bump in LTE equipment sales worldwide,” notes Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

The three largest LTE deployments by revenue size in Q3 2012 occurred in North America, Japan and South Korea, says Infonetics. Nokia Siemens Networks’ share increase reflects the company’s strong position in every major account in Japan (NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile) and South Korea (KT, SK telecom and LGU+) as well as the T-Mobile rollout in the US.

In the combined 2G, 3G and 4G infrastructure market, Nokia Siemens Networks maintained the second place it achieved one year ago with the completion of the acquisition of Motorola, reported Infonetics. However, the company continues to gain in North America through the T-Mobile USA W-CDMA and LTE rollout, adding one percentage point over the second quarter of 2012, also reports the market research firm.

Teral adds, “LTE was indeed the lone bright spot this quarter, as the rest of the mobile infrastructure market dragged the overall market down, led by a sharp drop in CDMA gear. Despite the current lethargy, we anticipate a strong pipeline moving forward, with 2013 fully charged with a good mix of 2G, 3G, and LTE equipment purchases. China Mobile alone has a nationwide TD-LTE rollou plan of 100,000 eNodeBs.”

In 3Q12, the global 2G/3G/4G (including LTE and WiMAX) infrastructure market was down 4.7% from the previous quarter and down 4.0% from the year-ago quarter.