4G/LTE: Yes, It's Fast... But That's Hardly All4G/LTE: Yes, It's Fast... But That's Hardly All

A 10X speed improvement makes for an easy sell for mobile operators, but they should be touting 4G/LTE's other benefits, too.

While many UC vendors talk about mobility, Mitel is the first among them to put a strategy in place for actually bringing collaboration and mobility together. It isn't just creating a mobile UC overlay, as others have done, but is integrating at the network level -- a capability gained in the acquisition of cellular network software provider Mavenir Systems last March.

No vendors have tried to do this previously because they couldn't make it happen with 3G and earlier generation networks. 4G/LTE technology, which Mitel gained via Mavenir, makes it possible to bring these two previously disconnected worlds together. That made LTE a hot topic of conversation as Mitel shared its mobile vision with industry analysts at a November 2015 briefing.

In my opinion, the evolution to LTE is one of the most misunderstood industry transitions. In fact, a few of the analysts I spoke to at the Mitel event confessed they really didn't understand LTE's significance and the reason for Mitel's focus on the topic. As I've also found this knowledge gap in talking to Wall Street analysts, enterprise customers, and people just generally interested in LTE, let me explain LTE here a bit.

Fast, Faster, Fastest
I believe one reason people don't understand the benefits of LTE is that the messaging from service providers is around speed alone. Why? Well, because it's easy to do. Logically, LTE, or 4G as it's often called, must be faster than 3G because it's one more "G." 3G is faster than 2G, so 4G must be faster than 3G -- and while it's true that 4G networks can be around 10 times faster than 3G networks, speed isn't the only benefit.

Whereas previous versions of cellular technology are circuit switched, LTE is all IP. This represents a huge shift in mobile networks, and is the first thing you need to understand about LTE -- it's from this that most of the benefits derive.

Those of us grey hairs who have been in the communications industry for a while should have a good understanding of why IP is critical to communications. We have, after all, lived through the same sort of transition when circuit-switched PBXs evolved into packet-switched IP PBXs. The best analogy I can think of is that 3G is like using a dial-up modem and LTE is like having home broadband.

What's to Like
Once mobile carriers have fully deployed LTE networks, consumers and businesses will see the following benefits:

Learn more about mobility trends and technologies at Enterprise Connect 2016, March 7 to 10, in Orlando, Fla. View the Mobility track sessions here.

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