LTE Advanced

A major upgrade to the LTE cellular communications technology. Standardized starting with Release 10 of the 3GPP specification in 2011, LTE Advanced was designed to provide significantly faster download speeds than LTE. It also offers new features that include emergency call priority, enhanced service in rural areas and machine-to-machine (M2M) transmission without overloading the network. Implementing LTE Advanced is less costly for LTE carriers than when they previously switched from 3G to LTE.

LTE Advanced Pro (4.5G)
Introduced in 2016 (Release 13) and 2017 (Release 14), LTE-A Pro increased speed into the gigabit range by incorporating four antennas (4x4 MIMO), carrier aggregation (combining frequency bands of a wide range of transmission technologies) and 256QAM modulation (more data in the same signal). Also called "Gigabit LTE," LTE-A Pro supports transmission in the 5 GHz unlicensed band (see LAA). In addition, a part of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is available for LTE-A Pro networks in airports, hospitals and other private complexes. See 3.5 GHz band, LTE and LTE for IoT, MIMO and QAM.