LTE emerges as early leader in 4G technologies

Given recent commitments from most major service providers, LTE is shaping up as the early leader in 4G deployments. LTE is the Long Term Evolution of the Global System for Mobile Communication and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System cell phone network. In December of 2008 the specification was accepted by 3GPP and finalized. LTE, like other 4G technologies, represents a departure from the analog circuit switched voice network and a transition toward an all-data packet network based on the Internet Protocol (IP). As such, voice traffic over an LTE network will be handled as Voice-over-IP which transforms voice into packetized data. In addition, the goal of 4G technologies like LTE is to achieve high-speed data rates over the cellular network, over 100 Mbps so that consumers can use their mobile phone as the access method of choice for the Internet.