Pepwave has shipped MAX BR1 mini with LTE-A. Other Pepwave and Peplink cellular devices that are LTE-A capable will follow. LTE-A is not just another incremental step, but the beginning of the next wave.
Demystifying LTE-Advanced
Despite what carrier marketing may have led you to believe, LTE is not an exact set of capabilities. Rather LTE, which stands for Long Term Evolution, is a set of standards set out for 3G, originally, and now 4G. Carriers have long boasted of 4G LTE even when they were meeting only a few of the standards. In the United States, best case 4G coverage in major cities will deliver 10-15 Mbps download speeds while the LTE standard calls for peak rates of 300 Mbps down and 75 Mbps up. Even in Singapore, the country with the fastest average connection speeds, 4G LTE only delivers about 35 Mbps. This is not to say that we have been cheated our cellular providers. Rather the technology evolves into the standard while we are using it.
Which bring us to Advanced LTE (LTE-A). LTE-A is the next set of standards for technology that eventually will deliver significantly better and more stable data connections. In theory we could see peak download speeds in the 3 gigabit range, but the standards calls for at least 100 megabits per second download speeds for a rapidly moving receiver, like your car zipping along at 70 mph. True 4G LTE-A should be able to achieve one gigabit per second downstream when the receiver is stationary. However, reality is not as speedy as theory. We will most likely see 30 to 40 Megabits per second in common use. In the USA even 30 Mbps is good news. Thirty Mbps would be two to three times faster than what anyone has seen from cellular communications in the US recently, even in ideal conditions, at places with a high saturation of hardware.
LTE-A should bring advancements beyond speed. The standard calls for more complete coverage at the edges of signal areas, which will result in better connections away from towers and clean hand-offs from signal to signal. Since failed hand-off is the primary source of dropped connections, LTE-A will be an important advancement.
Anyone who has struggled with coverage inside buildings will also benefit from LTE-A’s use of small cells. Femtocells and picocells are remote cell senders that connect to the network through Ethernet or Wi-Fi and become an indoor cell tower. One picocell can spread a signal more than 200 yards, enough to provide a solid connection for an entire warehouse. It is not new technology, per se. AT&T markets “3G Microcell” (not a true microcell) and T-Mobile offers a CellSpot for home use that cover a radius of about 40 feet. These devices are notorious for dropping any call near the edge of the signal, and can rarely negotiate a handoff to or from a fixed cell tower. The LTE-A advantage will be in the smoother hand-offs that will make small cells function seamlessly as part of existing cell networks.
LTE-A, What About Today?
The primary LTE-A technology in use in 2016 is carrier aggregation. In 2014, Verizon, then Sprint dipped their collective toes in carrier aggregation with the rollout of “XLTE” and “Spark” respectively. Then sprint rebadged it “LTE Plus.” They are binding together three LTE bands to create a more stable signal. Fully implemented carrier aggregation binds multiple bands at different frequencies to create a truly robust connection. Now Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are all using some form of aggregation in theirs moves toward LTE-A. USA carriers are already using the LTE-A designation, but its availability is limited to major cities. Like the original LTE rollout, carriers will implement LTE-A technologies one at a time, but probably at a much faster pace than the initial LTE introduction. T-Mobile has started to label it 5G, but for now, it’s all similar tech.
The marketing names don’t matter. LTE-A is bringing significant benefits. One requirement of the LTE-A standard is that it is fully backwards and forward compatible with other standards. Many handsets are LTE-A ready, going back as far as the Samsung Galaxy S5. As the standard develops LTE-A will improve the experience for many 4G LTE users with their existing hardware.
In non-telephone data transmission, LTE-A or LTE Cat 6 will be significant. For remote communications — POP displays, ATMs, sales kiosks, and fleet communications — LTE-A can create a connection indistinguishable from a wired network. Which is where Peplink and Pepwave come in. The addition of LTE-A to what are already arguably the best solutions for remote and movable data connections, make Pepwave an easy choice. The Pepwave BR1-mini LTE-A helps put LTE v. LTE-A in perspective. In the USA LTE uses six different 4G frequency bands. LTE-A as it is implemented in the BR1-Mini uses those six bands, and adds nine more bands at higher frequencies.
FrontierUS has the Dual SIM, Pepwave MAX BR1 Mini LTE-A in stock and ready to ship today. We are also authorized resellers for Verizon and T-Mobile, so we can bundle the BR1 Mini LTE-A with data for both SIM slots from two carriers that are using carrier aggregation.
Frontier Computer Corp. is the distributor for Peplink and Pepwave products in North America and Europe. We have a huge inventory of Peplink solutions at our warehouse.
Contact FrontierUS at 866.226.6344.
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