Wireless carriers like to toss around technology-laden acronyms such as 3G, EV-DO, HSPA, 4G and LTE as if we all have a degree in rocket science. The reality is, the average person doesn’t have the slightest clue what most of those mean -- so we’ll attempt to cut through the mystery of what some of them mean, beginning with the former, LTE.
“LTE” stands for Long-Term Evolution, itself an extension of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally “Groupe Spécial Mobile”) technology currently used in the majority of the world (and specifically with AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States).
GSM is already capable of simultaneous voice and high-speed data with 3G, which is how you can surf the web on an AT&T iPhone 3G or higher at the same time you’re talking on the handset. The easiest way to spot a GSM device is to look for the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, the small chip which contains unique information about your cell phone number and can easily be swapped among other unlocked GSM handsets.
By comparison, Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the U.S. both use CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access), an older voice and data standard that doesn’t use a SIM card and isn’t widely used in other countries -- notable exceptions include South Korea, Japan and parts of South America. CDMA technology is also limited to either voice or data at any given time -- you can’t have both, even with 3G.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI for short) is a group of chaps across the pond who establish standards for -- you guessed it -- the telecommunications business. Since ETSI is a non-profit organization, their primary interest is in being the bridge between the blokes who make the hardware (including cell phones) and the carriers whose networks they’ll work on.
LTE comes to us courtesy of a partnership known as 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project), itself an entity of ETSI, cell phone maker Nokia and others, and was first proposed as an international standard by NTT DoCoMo of Japan in 2004.
In reality, there are two types of LTE -- the current “pre-4G” standard being rolled out by carriers who are touting it as 4G anyway, and LTE Advanced, which is the true “4G” you’ll see someday in the future. What’s currently being touted as “4G LTE” is really a baby step toward the eventual adoption of LTE Advanced, which will be backward compatible with today’s standard. For now, think of LTE as the building blocks to a faster future with a larger pipe than today’s technology can handle.
LTE is the latest evolution of GSM, which promises to not only bring broadband-type speeds to mobile data connections, but also at last unify rival U.S. carriers AT&T and Verizon. That’s because both companies have pledged to support their own “4G-ish” version of LTE, with Verizon kicking off those plans in late 2010 and anticipating extensive nationwide coverage by next year.
What becomes of Verizon’s incompatible CDMA technology, you ask? For now, it’s still in place, with LTE essentially being laid on top of CDMA so that both types of devices can peacefully coexist during this transitionary phase. New LTE-capable smartphones such as the HTC ThunderBolt and the Samsung Droid Charge are actually still using CDMA for voice service, while the 4G data is piped over LTE -- though these handsets are still capable of using CDMA-based 3G data when LTE isn’t available.
Verizon’s decision has pushed LTE ahead of competing 4G technologies such as Sprint’s WiMax, and should open the doors for customers of Big Red to enjoy international mobility with future devices thanks to interchangeable SIM cards -- that should come as good news to Verizon’s parent company Vodafone, the European carrier who has been one of the earliest proponents of LTE.
The promise of LTE is speed and plenty of it -- the wireless technology is capable of offering 100Mbps download and at least 50Mbps upload, which runs circles around current mobile speeds and even eclipses most home broadband, whether it’s DSL or cable.
In reality, LTE speeds will be more modest for the immediate future, with Verizon promising download speeds between 5-12 Mbps and uploads of up to 5Mbps. AT&T, while further behind on their rollout than rival Verizon, recently demonstrated download speeds of 28.87Mbps and uploads of 10.4Mbps -- although those numbers will drop significantly in the real world. In any event, it’s much faster than the company’s current HSPA speeds, which max out at 7.2Mbps, although real-world results are often half of that.
Ultimately, the goal with LTE is to increase the capacity of wireless networks in order to tackle the ever-increasing data bottleneck as more and more smartphones, tablets and devices yet to come start filling up networks worldwide. Remember, these are comparatively early days in high-speed wireless, and at the rate Apple and others continue to add new customers for their products, the best is yet to come.
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MacAddict4Life
May 20, 2011 at 3:05pm
"...that should come as good news to Verizon’s parent company Vodafone, the European carrier who has been one of the earliest proponents of LTE."
I found this a little misleading. Verizon Wireless is owned 55% by Verizon Communications and 45% by Vodaphone.
