Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, is a standard for wireless broadband commutations for mobile devices. LTE is sometimes referred to as 4G LTE. LTE is a registered trademark owned by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). When developing LTE, the goal was to increase the capacity and speed of wireless data networks by using new data signal processing techniques. Additionally, they wanted to redesign and simplify the network architecture with reduced times between stimulation and response compared to 3G.
NTT Docomo of Japan proposed LTE as the international standard in 2004. In 2006, Siemens Networks (Nokia Networks today) show the first live emulation of an LTE network to investors and the media. The next year, Ericcson demonstrated LTE rates up to 144 megabits per second and NTT Docomo demonstrated data rates of 200 megabits per second with power levels below 100 megawatts. In 2008, LTE testing equipment began shipping from vendors. At the 2008 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Ericcson demonstrated the first end-to-end LTE call on handheld devices. Motorola demonstrated at the MWC how LTE can acerbate the delivery of person media with HD video streaming, online gaming, and more. In August 2009, Telefónica selected the first six countries to field-test LTE in the succeeding months: Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, Brazil, and Argentina. Countries and carriers gradually began adopting LTE in the following years.
The international standard for LTE is loosely defined, making its speed hard to nail down. LTE download speeds can vary from 3G’s 20 Mbps to 4G’s 100 Mbps. Different countries have different LTE frequencies and bands, so only multi-band phones can use LTE in all countries where LTE is supported. LTE bands are linked to frequencies and represent blocks of sequential LTE frequency rages. The ten countries with the highest penetration of LTE are:
The biggest carriers in the US use Band 2, Band 4, Band 66 (an extension of Band 4), Band 5, extended Bands 12/17/29, and Band 30.