What is LTE?

LTE or Long Term Evolution is the latest in wireless carrier technologies, also being marketed as 4G, and currently delivering an average of 5 to 15 Mbps in download speeds to the end user in its initial phase. That is a 5 to 10 fold increase over what can currently be achieved with 3G technologies such as CDMA 1xEV-DO or WCDMA (UMTS).  

It is worth noting here that when you hear about 4G LTE delivering data speeds upwards of 100 Mbps presently, what is usually implied, but not said, is that these figures are only achievable if a single user is communicating through the cells-site or tower and that user is in an optimal coverage area at close proximity from the cell-site with no RF interference – that’s quite a few if’s! 

A more realistic scenario would involve having 10 simultaneous users communicating through the same cell site and same channel under suboptimal RF conditions, thereby slicing up the pie into 10 pieces, resulting in less than 10 Mbps each. And what happens if you had 50 simultaneous users on the same channel? You guessed it, each will get 2 Mbps! 

With further enhancements to the network through MIMO antenna technology and use of wider channel bandwidth, LTE can potentially deliver anywhere from 150 Mbps to 300 Mbps in download speeds and 35 to 75 Mbps in upload speeds. I will venture to say that your piece of that would probably be from 10 to 20 Mbps, better than most cable/DSL speeds you get at home these days. 

Further down the road, possibly by 2013, LTE-Advanced is expected to deliver up to 1 Gbps, primarily by using two to five times the current allowable LTE bandwidth of 20 MHz.

Bottom Line   

Most all major wireless carriers in the world are looking for LTE as their upgrade path from existing 3G technologies. So if you happen to be in the market for a new phone and you care about having higher download speeds, then do consider a 4G LTE phone. And keep in mind that 4G phones are backwards compatible with prior 3G and 2G technologies, so if you are in an area with no 4G service yet, then your phone will still work in the prior G’s!