What is LTE?

So, what is LTE? Verizon Wireless, in its advertisements, will tell you that it is the fastest, most advanced network. AT&T will say it is the next generation of wireless technology. But that doesn’t say much, now does it? To put it simply, LTE is not just the next generation of wireless technology. LTE is an ongoing, living standard. LTE is a standard that will continuously improve over time. Many expect LTE to be the standard for cellular networks for at least the next decade, possibly even beyond!

LTE stands for Long Term Evolution. Its full name is 3GPP Long Term Evolution for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or 3GPP UMTS LTE for short. Most refer to the standard as UMTS LTE or just plain LTE. While UMTS LTE is the more correct name, it will be called LTE for the remainder of this article for brevity.

But that doesn’t tell us what LTE actually is. LTE is what the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (the group responsible for standardizing and improving the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS) designates as their next step. UMTS is the group of standards that define 3G for GSM networks across the world, including AT&T and T-Mobile’s 3G networks. For those who use CDMA2000 (subscribers of Verizon, Sprint, etc.), then LTE is pretty much the replacement for your mediocre 3G network.

LTE is a very good, easily deployable network technology, offering high speeds and low latencies over long distances. For example,Verizon LTE in Dallas, TX was rated with an average download speed of 15.75Mbps and an average upload speed of 1.49Mbps. Verizon’s 3G service was rated with an average download speed of 1.09Mbps and an average upload speed of 0.67Mbps. Its LTE service beat its competitors’ high speed service by a wide margin. Similar ratings followed in other cities as well. Unfortunately, AT&T’s LTE service is too new to take accurate measurements of. When the AT&T LTE network is more loaded with subscribers, then more accurate readings can be taken.

In this article, I will discuss what configurations LTE can be deployed in, why LTE is easily deployable, how LTE works as a radio technology, what types of LTE exist, how LTE affects battery life, what network operators want LTE to do, and the future of 4G as a whole. The most technical parts of the article are LTE can be deployed in, why LTE is easily deployable, how LTE works as a radio technology, and what types of LTE exist. For those who don’t want that information, you can skip to how LTE affects battery life and still get the gist of what I’m saying. But to get the complete picture, reading the whole article is advised.