BERLIN — Does LTE, the superfast wireless service based on Long Term Evolution technology, cost too much in the United States? A recent study by the research arm of the GSM Association, a group based in London that represents mobile operators, suggests that may be the case.

The LTE network run by Verizon Wireless, the U.S. market leader, went live in 2010, shortly after Sweden turned on the world’s first LTE networks in December 2009.

Through June, there were 27 million LTE subscribers in the world, about half of them in the United States, according to TeleGeography, a market research firm based in Washington. South Korea is the second-largest market, with 7.5 million users, and Japan, with 3.5 million, is the third, according to the company.

LTE services are available in 21 European countries and used by 1.5 million people, TeleGeography says. Germany has the most users there.