LTE-U

With ever more devices trying to squeeze growing volumes of mobile data through a limited number of LTE frequencies, Verizon is leading the push for use of unlicensed frequencies – known as LTE-Unlicensed, or LTE-U. As well as increasing capacity, LTE-U would potentially offer faster speeds.

The problem? These are the same frequencies used by WiFi, Bloomberg reporting that Google, Microsoft, Comcast and other oppose rapid adoption for this reason.

The three companies have been among a group lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to delay LTE-U’s adoption pending further tests [claiming that it] “would substantially degrade consumer Wi-Fi service across the country.”

The companies argue that while both existing LTE frequencies and WiFi play nicely when it comes to competing demand for use of the same airwaves, LTE-U doesn’t … 
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Qualcomm had already promised its top-of-the-range Snapdragon 820 chip – expected to be used in next year’s flagship Android smartphones and cellular tablets – will boost battery-life and offer great improvements to photos. Now the company says we can also expect much faster LTE-Advanced connections, and smarter, faster charging.

The Snapdragon 820 will increase maximum LTE download speeds by a third, from 450Mbps to 600Mbps. Maximum upload speeds will double to 150Mbps – currently viewed as an impressive download speed. And speeds could be even higher thanks to support for the as yet unofficial LTE-U standard … 
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