T-Mobile Promises Faster LTE Speeds Using Unlicensed Spectrum T-Mobile says the company will be deploying faster LTE service using the same 5GHz frequencies used by WiFi. T-Mobile's announcement came shortly after the FCC announced that the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology had authorized the first LTE-U (LTE for unlicensed) devices in the 5 GHz band. Something the FCC has been working on for three years, LTE-U lets companies share existing unlicensed spectrum, provided it adheres to guidelines ensuring that interference with competing devices is minimized.

T-Mobile was quick to say that LTE-U will help the company in its goal of delivering gigabit speeds via wireless. "Starting this spring, T-Mobile customers will be able to tap into the first 20 MHz of underutilized unlicensed spectrum on the 5GHz band and use it for additional LTE capacity," notes T-Mobile in a statement. "Starting in December 2016, T-Mobile was already testing LTE-U equipment as part of early field trials, so the Un-carrier has been ready to hit the ground running to bring this new technology to customers." Verizon Wireless has also stated it plans to implement LTE-U, but hasn't given a hard timeline for its own deployment. LTE-U saw notable controversy in 2015 when the cable and broadcast industries claimed that the technology would cause interference with existing WiFi networks. Cable providers urged the FCC to carefully monitor any standards-setting process and get all parties together to insure "effective sharing mechanisms" -- or the end result will be notable degradation in Wi-Fi network performance. The FCC says it has carefully complied, and interference shouldn't be a concern. "The Commission’s provisions for unlicensed devices are designed to prevent harmful interference to radio communications services and stipulate that these devices must accept any harmful interference they receive," said the agency. "Industry has developed various standards within the framework of these rules such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee that are designed to coexist in shared spectrum." There's a bit more detail in the FCC There's a bit more detail in the FCC announcement and T-Mobile's press release







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Most recommended from 30 comments



Anon523d7

@2600:100d.x 11 recommendations Anon523d7 Anon This is BS T-Mo is going to crowd out Wi-Fi with their own FOR PROFIT service.



"Devices must accept interference..." does anyone at the FCC know how Wi-Fi works? Wi-Fi won't transmit at all when it detects RF energy on its channel. LTE will. In any contention battle LTE is going to win by default.



T-Mo should be using small cells and distributed antenna systems to solve their capacity issues, on the spectrum they paid billions of dollara for, not the compartively tiny slice of spectrum set aside for hobbyists, individuals, and small companies.

pclover

join:2008-08-02

Santa Cruz, CA 2 recommendations pclover Member EIRP limits This will not be used for long range stuff due to part 15 power limits. The only way this would be used for long range is stuff such as a point-to-point links but there is better solutions for that than Wi-Fi.



I see this being used on picocells inside businesses and DAS systems.

Darknessfall

Premium Member

join:2012-08-17 Cisco DPC3008

Asus RT-N66

1 edit 2 recommendations Darknessfall Premium Member Channel 165 I wouldn't really care about LTE-U if they used channel 165. Considering how underused it is in most cases, I doubt most people would even care. Out of all of the 5 GHz channels, 165 is probably the least used overall.



When they say "tap into the first 20 MHz of underutilized unlicensed spectrum on the 5GHz band" are they referring to channel 36(bad bad bad) or is it literally saying the first 20 MHz of detected unused spectrum? I'm not sure if I really understand. Can someone clarify?