The Future of LTE

 

The Future of LTE

LTE is a standard used for high-speed wireless communications and describes the path toward achieving true 4G speeds. LTE is today, along with LTE Advanced (LTE-A) and LTE-A Pro, part of the 4G LTE system. These technologies help handle capacity demands and increase speed. They will also act as a stepping stone to 5G by inching speeds closer to what will be possible with the fifth generation of wireless connectivity tech. As 5G begins to roll out, LTE technologies will fill in the gaps where coverage doesn’t exist yet. 4G will play a similar role.

Some of the more advanced LTE technologies will also work in conjunction with 5G. LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, Gigabit LTE and possibly other future types of LTE will help to support 5G. LTE-A is available today and can provide speeds that exceed those of 4G. LTE-A Pro has the potential to reach speeds of up to 3 Gbps, although real-world speeds will probably be less. Telstra launched the first Gigabit LTE network in January 2017 in Australia, which has peak upload speeds of 150 Mbps at the time. Other operators are now upgrading their networks as well.

Another development in the world of LTE is LTE-U, which is short for Long-Term Evolution in unlicensed spectrum. LTE-U is a wireless communication system that is designed to use unlicensed parts of the spectrum to reduce some of the burden on carriers’ networks. These unlicensed parts are open to anybody, within certain limits. The use of LTE-U is somewhat controversial, however, because it has the potential to slow down Wi-Fi signals. Proponents of LTE-U say they are working on solutions that would prevent this problem from occurring.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile has already rolled out support for LTE-U in six U.S. cities. AT&T, however, has decided to skip LTE-U and go straight to Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), a standardized version of LTE-U. Verizon has been a proponent of LTE-U. Both technologies will help fill in the gaps in the transition to 5G.

Another competitor is LWA, which stands for LTE-WLAN Aggregation. This technology configures the network to support both LTE and WLAN simultaneously. MulteFire operates in the unlicensed spectrum and requires users to install MulteFire access points instead of Wi-Fi gateways.