[1] LTE-Unlicensed is a proposal, originally developed by Qualcomm, for the use of the 4G LTE radio communications technology in unlicensed spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band used by 802.11a and 802.11ac compliant Wi-Fi equipment.
Currently, there are a number of variants of LTE operation in the unlicensed band, namely LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA), MulteFire, sXGP and CBRS.
LTE-U would allow cellphone carriers to boost coverage in their cellular networks, by using the unlicensed 5 GHz band already populated by Wi-Fi devices.
[11] In June 2015, Google sent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States a 25-page protest, making an argument against LTE-U in highly technical detail.
Qualcomm explained that the divergence in results was caused by the fact that "the testing the opposing parties conducted for LTE-U/Wi-Fi coexistence below the ED level utilized extremely pessimistic and impractical technical assumptions", whereas Qualcomm's tests were conducted "using a far more realistic setup", including actual LTE-U equipment (versus signal generators in Google's study).
“The latest version of the test plan released by the Wi-Fi Alliance lacks technical merit, is fundamentally biased against LTE-U, and rejects virtually all the input that Qualcomm provided for the last year, even on points that were not controversial,” said Dean Brenner, senior vice president of government affairs.
[19] In November 2016 Verizon, separate to the Wi-Fi Alliance coexistence plan, filed a Special Temporary Authority (STA) application with the FCC[20] to test 40 small cells in the 5Ghz band.
[22] As of June 26, 2017, T-Mobile declared that they have successfully launched LTE-U in Bellevue, Washington; Brooklyn, New York; Dearborn, Michigan; Las Vegas, Nevada; Richardson, Texas; and Simi Valley, California.
The GSA also identified 21 chipsets containing modems that support one or more of LTE-U, LAA, LWA or CBRS from vendors including GCT, Intel, Mediatek, Qualcomm, and Samsung.