What Is 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE)?
You’ve heard it in commercials, seen it plastered across billboards, and maybe even read about it in your cellphone plan. But what is 4G LTE, and how do its speeds and coverage compare to other 3G and 4G networks?
3G is required to meet IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) technical standards, which means a peak download rate of 200 Kbps, or 0.2 Mbps. This may seem slow to you now, but at the time, it was enough to get your email in a timely fashion.
Logically, the next step after 3G–the third generation of wireless mobile communications technology–would be 4G, or the fourth generation. The the ITU Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R) set some requirements as to what would constitute a 4G network: it must provide peak 100 Mbps downloads if you’re using a mobile device such as a phone or tablet. More stationary devices, such as mobile hotspots, should provide peaks speeds of 1 Gbps.
In more recent years, 3G has made some advancements. High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), for example, can offer theoretical speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, and is often called 3.5G or Turbo 3G.
Then came 4G, in the form of Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Both were marketed this as “4G”, even though they didn’t meet the ITU’s standards–neither reached that 100 Mbps download rate.
LTE, however, wasn’t just another improvement of 3G. It was meant to be more of an umbrella term given to the technologies designed to get us to the 4G standard. In other words, it’s what 4G will be be when the technology evolves enough to provide those speeds. It’s 4G-Eventually.
As a way of compromising, the ITU-R decided that mobile carriers could market LTE (and HSPA) as 4G, since they represented a significant improvement over 3G and paved the way for true 4G speeds.
