LTE-U: A quick explainer

LTE-U is a wireless network technology that’s promising a lot, as well as ruffling a few feathers (especially in the Wi-Fi world). Here’s a brief rundown for the perplexed.

OK, so what’s LTE-U?

LTE-U is a system of wireless communication designed to use unlicensed spectrum – which is open to everybody, within certain limits – to ease the burden on big mobile carriers’ networks. Regular LTE is the system they use to transmit and receive information across their licensed spectrum – to which only they have access. LTE-U (short for Long-Term Evolution in unlicensed spectrum) uses the same “language” to operate on the unlicensed spectrum, which the carriers don’t have to spend billions of dollars to acquire.

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