T-Mobile has moved to expand the coverage of LTE Advanced across more than 920 markets, while also making the Gigabit Class LTE powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gigabit LTE modems available in 430 of those markets. LTE Advanced is the next generation of LTE (Long Term Evolution) that combines three technologies such as carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO and 256 QAM to exponentially boost internet speeds. The Un-carrier claims that LTE Advanced is capable of more than doubling existing download speeds. Additionally, you can also expect to double the speed again through the combination of the three speed-boosting technologies, aided in no small way by the upgrades T-Mobile made to its network and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gigabit LTE modems.
Carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO and 256 QAM together function to help boost the network capacity, minimize factors that congest the network and beef up the spectral efficiency, making it possible for T-Mobile to offer one gigabit per second of mobile data to its markets, provided customers have the capable devices to accommodate such a robust network speed. T-Mobile’s LTE Advanced coverage is noticeably twice as large since 2016, during which the Un-carrier also introduced the 4×4 MIMO technology to provide double the internet speed to customers. MIMO is short for multiple input, multiple output, and it is designed to augment the data speed between a cell site and a mobile device. Around the same time, T-Mobile also unveiled 256 QAM for downloads and 64 QAM for uploads, increasing the number of bits that go for every transmission.
During a media and analyst event in the San Jose Convention Center, T-Mobile teamed up with Qualcomm to showcase the capabilities of Gigabit Class LTE on T-Mobile’s network with flagship smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Moto Z2 Force Edition, and LG V30, which are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform with X16 LTE. During the demonstration, T-Mobile also announced that it plans to introduce the License Assisted Access advanced LTE technology to small cells this year in a bid to increase capacity and speed by taking advantage of unlicensed spectrum, which is believed to help prepare for the deployment of 5G wireless network. In preparation for the LAA launch, T-Mobile started deploying LTE-U technology in select areas across the United States in April of this year.