FCC Authorized the First LTE Device Using an Unlicensed 5GHz Band

The Federal Communications Commission has authorized the first LTE device to use an unlicensed 5GHz band. After agreeing to limit the industry terms that interfere with the use of Wi-Fi services in the same frequency band, the engineering and Technology Office of the U.S. regulator authorized operators to use LTE devices in such frequency bands.

LTE-U and Wi-Fi stakeholders worked together under the auspices of the Wi-Fi consortium to develop guidelines for coexistence and to evaluate the test plan (released in the fall of 2016). In addition to meeting the radio rules of the Federal Communications Commission, the approved LTE-U devices have also successfully passed the assessment of the coexistence test program.

T-Mobile is the first company to say it plans to launch LTE-U in the next few months, the company plans to use its partners - has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission NOKIA and Ericsson equipment. T-Mobile customers are expected to start this spring to access the 5GHz band in the first 20 MHz unlicensed spectrum, and as an additional LTE capacity.

T-Mobile began testing LTE-U equipment in field trials since December 2016. AT & T and Verizon also said that they are planning to test new technologies.