LTE, an acronym for Long Term Evolution, commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements.[1][2] The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9.
The world's first publicly available LTE service was launched by TeliaSonera in Stockholm and Oslo on December 14, 2009.[3] LTE is the natural upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks such as Verizon Wireless, which launched the first large-scale LTE network in North America in 2010,[4][5] and au by KDDI in Japan have announced they will migrate to LTE. Airtel launched the LTE service in India in April 2012.[6] LTE is, therefore, anticipated to become the first truly global mobile phone standard, although the different LTE frequencies and bands used in different countries will mean that only multi-band phones will be able to use LTE in all countries where it is supported.
Although marketed as a 4G wireless service, LTE (as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series) does not satisfy the technical requirements the 3GPP consortium has adopted for its new standard generation, and which were originally set forth by the ITU-R organization in its IMT-Advanced specification. However, due to marketing pressures and the significant advancements that WIMAX, HSPA+ and LTE bring to the original 3G technologies, ITU later decided that LTE together with the aforementioned technologies can be called 4G technologies.[7] The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the ITU-R requirements to be considered IMT-Advanced.[8] And to differentiate LTE Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced from current 4G technologies, ITU has defined them as "True 4G".[9][10]
