T-Mobile has officially received the FCC certification for the equipment in deploying the LTE-U technology for its subscribers. While there are still a few steps more needed to do a massive roll-out, they can at least now put on a tentative schedule as to when they can introduce the new technology for their network and it looks like this will come in Spring of this year. This should make connectivity faster and easier for those subscribed to the “uncarrier.”
What makes LTE-U special is that devices and equipment are able to tap into the underutilized unlicensed spectrum and share this without affecting those other users that are on the same band. When T-Mobile launches it this spring, their subscribers will be able to tap into the first 20MHz in the 5GHz band. In other words, they will get more LTE capacity. And this will also pave the way for the carrier to expand its upcoming Gigabit LTE to more places around the country.
T-Mobile has spent three years of “extensive research, development, and testing” to make sure that this new technology can still work with others like Wi-Fi. They were actually already testing it around December of 2016 and were just waiting for the FCC certification of equipment for their partners Ericsson and Nokia, to be able to finalize the work needed to bring it to their subscribers.
Now all we have to do is wait and see what LTE-U can bring to improve the quality of connectivity, which is probably one of the basic necessities most people want to have, aside from clothing and food and shelter. Expect T-Mobile to make more noise soon as they believe they have the advantage over their competitors and they’re not shy to broadcast this.
Source: https://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-to-launch-lte-u-in-the-spring-of-2017-20170224/