LTE vs. 5G: Which Is Better & Why?

The world has changed considerably during the past two decades. Due to the increasing digitization of economies, industries, and businesses, advances in both wired and wireless networking are now essential. The ongoing digital transformation has had a significant impact on the telecommunications industry, in particular, the demand for quicker and more effective network offerings. This drove the development and widespread implementation of 5G and other forms of wireless network technology, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). In this article, we will be discussing the top comparisons between LTE vs. 5G Speed, Verizon LTE vs. 5G, AT&T LTE vs. 5G, and 4G LTE vs. 5G.

The LTE Standard: What You Need to Know

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the project name for developing a powerful wireless link for mobile communication systems. It’s the last piece of the puzzle for 4G radio technology, which promises faster and more reliable mobile phone networks.

LTE is promoted as 4G, while 2G and 3G were the designations for earlier generations of mobile communication networks. In its original form, the concept was first implemented in 2008, benefiting users with faster data transfer rates, more efficient applications, and lower overhead.

Although initial deployments of LTE showed only a minor improvement over 3G HSPA and were thus dubbed 3.5G or 3.99G, once its full capabilities were realized, it delivered a whole new 4G performance level. LTE was crucial in the development of the current 5G standard, 5G New Radio. Non-standalone 5G (NSA 5G) networks required 4G LTE network control to process 5G data sessions. 5G service companies can save money on setup and maintenance by constructing NSA 5G networks on top of existing 4G infrastructure.

Why Is LTE Called Long-Term Evolution?

So, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is responsible for developing long-term evolution. The standard was hailed as the natural evolution of mobile communications following the earlier 2G GSM and 3G UMTS standards. 4G LTE is a popular marketing term for LTE.

Initially, LTE was not considered a true 4G technology. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) originally described 4G as a cellular standard that would offer data rates of 1 Gbps to a stationary user and 100 Mbps to a user who was actively moving around. After initially resisting 4G for LTE and other wireless protocols, the ITU reversed course in December 2010.

How Does LTE Work?

In particular, an LTE network’s downlink signal uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), which is a multiuser version of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation.

With OFDMA, the LTE downlink can send information from a base station to many users at data rates that are far higher than those of 3G while still making efficient use of the available spectrum. Uplink signals use single-carrier FDMA, which allows mobile terminals to lower their transmission power.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) is the basis of LTE’s higher layers, creating an IP-only wireless network similar to wired networks. With LTE, you can send and receive all kinds of data, including phone, video, and text messages.

LTE-A utilizes MIMO antenna technologies, just like those seen in the IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN standard. Especially in congested metropolitan settings, the coverage and throughput of wireless networks can benefit from the increased signal-to-noise ratio made possible by MIMO and OFDM.

In order to use LTE-A, devices need to have a specific chip installed. Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm all produce chips that are compatible with LTE-A. Most modern mobile phones can connect to LTE-A networks.

LTE Features

Long-term evolution (LTE) provides consumers with a range of functions, which encompass the subsequent:

Audio and video streaming. LTE offers superior throughput than both 2G and 3G networks.
Real-time connection to services. Talking to others is now completely smooth and lag-free thanks to voice-over LTE.
Even faster speeds with LTE-Advanced. LTE-Advanced offers download and upload rates that are two to three times as fast as regular LTE. All LTE Advanced devices can also function on the older, more basic LTE networks.
Aggregation of carriers. By distributing the 100 MHz of bandwidth among five 20 MHz component carriers (bands), this LTE-Advanced innovation increased the network’s capacity. LTE-A phones use a frequency-aggregation technique to boost signal strength, data transfer rates, and dependability across a network of disparate carriers.

The 5G Standard: What You Need to Know

5G, short for the fifth generation, is the new global wireless standard that follows 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile networks. 5G creates a new type of network that can link virtually any two devices, human or otherwise.

There will be more people who can make use of the benefits of 5G wireless technology, which include multi-Gbps peak data rates, super-low latency, greater reliability, huge bandwidth, increased availability, and a more consistent customer experience.

Performance enhancement opens the door to new kinds of customer interactions and industry partnerships. One of the biggest advantages of 5G is its low latency, or response time, which complements its faster connection and larger data transfer rates.

The latency of a wireless network is the amount of time it takes for two devices to communicate and send a response. System performance for 3G networks is normally around 100 ms; for 4G, it represents a latency of around 30 ms, and for 5G, it will display as low as one ms. Compared to the architectures of earlier generations of wireless networks (2G, 3G, 4G, etc.), supporting this new 5G technology is both diverse and complex.

How Does 5G Work?

Transmissions in wireless networks occur over a band of frequencies called “spectrum.”

Similar to 4G, 5G runs on higher, fewer busy radio frequencies. Because of this, it is capable of transporting more data at a higher rate. We refer to these higher frequencies as “millimeter waves” (mm waves). They were previously illegal but have recently been made available by authorities. They were mostly untapped since the necessary tools were prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain.

Information can be transmitted at higher speeds on higher bands, however, there may be interference when sending over long distances. It’s simple for things like trees and buildings to get in their way. To get over this problem, 5G will use several input and output antennas to improve wireless signals and capacity.

Less bulky transmitters can be used using this technology. rather than using individual masts, these are mounted on buildings and street furniture. In comparison to 4G, 5G has the potential to accommodate up to a thousand times as many devices per square meter.

In addition, 5G technology will enable the physical network to be “sliced” into several virtual networks. As a result, operators will be able to better manage their networks by serving up the appropriate “slice” of the network at any given time, based on how it is being used. This allows the operator, for instance, to make use of varying slice capacities in accordance with the significance at hand. One customer streaming television would utilize a distinct slice of the company, while more complicated and resource-intensive tasks, like managing autonomous vehicles, may be isolated on their own network.

Also in the works is the provision for companies to rent their own “network slice,” or virtual segment of the Internet that is shielded from all other users.

How will 5G Shape Future Technology?

First, and most obviously, it’s superior in speed and dependability to 4G and 3G networks. Virtual and augmented reality software will also benefit from this since you’ll be able to download a movie in a matter of seconds on your 5g home broadband or stream a 4K film without buffering. Mobile devices and headsets won’t need to handle sophisticated processing locally thanks to 5G’s increased capacity and decreased latency.

More and more appliances, lights, vehicles, and billboards will be able to connect and interact with one another thanks to this increased capacity for the Internet of Things. While IoT gadgets are currently popular, the speed and capacity improvements brought forth by 5G will make it possible for virtually every object to be networked and smart.’

These developments are not only significant enhancements to existing technology, but they should also pave the way for the introduction of brand-new markets, such as those for driverless vehicles. Thanks to 5G’s decreased latency, these automobiles will be able to establish instantaneous connections with one another and the web.

Not only will autonomous vehicles rely heavily on 5G, but so will remote surgery, since doctors will be able to operate on patients from anywhere in the world using medical robots.

Although trials of remote control of an excavator have already been conducted across continents, it is expected that 5G will revolutionize the industrial sector by allowing for the real-time monitoring and control of robots, drones, and even entire factories.

LTE vs 5G: Comparison

Here are the top Differences between the 5G standard and fifth-generation networks and Long-Term Evolution (LTE):

#1. LTE vs 5G: Speed

When compared to LTE, 5G is lightning fast. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) suggested in 2008 that in ideal low-mobility settings, data throughput on LTE networks should be as high as 1 Gb/s.

However, data rates can be affected by a number of factors, including network congestion and a carrier’s spectrum capacity usage. According to the IMT-2020 report on 5G from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), minimum download speeds are increased to 100 Mb/s, and maximum speeds are increased to 20 Gb/s.

While AT&T claims to have seen network speeds of approximately 1.2 Gb/s in late 2018, Verizon’s 5G home internet has seen speeds in the region of 300 Mb/s to 940 Mb/s in recent months. Companies will employ beamforming to figure out the most efficient data transfer channel in 5G, which will use a combination of technologies to achieve gigabit bandwidth rates.

A dynamic time-division duplex (TDD) will be used to alter the path taken by data during either the download or upload processes, facilitating a more rapid exchange of information. In theory, 4G LTE should be capable of speeds of up to 150 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload.

However, these numbers change constantly as a result of things like location, deployment, and traffic. Realistically, you should expect 20 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds with 4G LTE.

#2. LTE vs 5G: Capacity

With 5G, you can do more. One major comparison between 5G and LTE will be the use of lower-range airwaves in conjunction with higher-frequency, millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands. This feature of the 5G design frees up enormous amounts of bandwidth, eliminating the bottlenecks that plagued LTE networks. However, 5G traffic will have to share some bandwidths with the existing LTE system.

Comparatively, 4G networks can support just ten times as many devices per square kilometer as 5G networks. Millimeter waves, or FR2 in 5G terminology, are used by some network providers to boost capacity and bandwidth. 5G can handle more data than its predecessor, 4G. It is expected that 5G will increase network capacity and efficiency by a factor of one hundred. 5G has the potential to enhance per-user traffic capacity by 40% when compared to 4G LTE.

In an academic paper published in 2017 on IEEE Xplore, it is stated that the wireless industry is currently making significant investments in the advancement of networks operating in the mmWave frequency bands. These bands are particularly attractive due to the substantial bandwidth they offer, as well as the spatial degrees of freedom facilitated by the utilization of high-dimensional antenna arrays. The feasibility of such arrays is made possible by the reduced size of antenna elements at higher frequencies.

#3. LTE vs 5G: Availability

The International Telecommunication Union-Regional (5G) is the most recent set of standards and technologies to be produced by the ITU-R in the past ten years. While 5G service is now available across most of the country, it mainly exists in large metropolitan areas. Your phone may still be able to switch to LTE if you leave the municipal limits. With its long lifespan and ability to fill in service gaps where 5G is unavailable, the LTE network will be around for quite some time.

The rollout is ongoing, so you can’t use any and all 5G networks just now (as you probably can with LTE). Almost all urban regions have faster options, but most rural ones have slower ones or none. This means that the fastest possible network speeds on your 5G phone will be unavailable in many locations.

#4. LTE vs 5G: Latency

The latency in 5G networks is much smaller than that of LTE networks. The goal of the 5G standard is to speed up downloads by a factor of ten from the current LTE standard of 10 milliseconds to 4 milliseconds for phones and 1 millisecond for devices like self-driving vehicles that rely on ultra-reliable low latency communication. From large-scale automated vehicle engagement to mobile and home video downloads, many use cases could benefit from reduced latency.

Ultra-low latency technologies have significant advantages in four use cases, as outlined in the IEEE Access document “Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications”: remote medical services and medical intervention assisted driving and transportation services entertainment content distribution gaming and factory automation.

When comparing 4G with 5G, latency is the biggest difference. The delay between uploading data from your smartphone and it arriving at its destination is where 4G LTE fails. This measure shows how long data travels from transmitter to receiver in milliseconds. The value of a fast response time is paramount in contexts like video games. The ability to make split-second decisions based on up-to-the-moment details could be crucial in preventing accidents involving self-driving cars, therefore sending data to the cloud could be a necessary safety feature.

#5. LTE vs 5G: Price and Availability

At least for the operators who have launched their services, unlimited 5G charges are higher than LTE rates. In 2021, Statista forecasts that 5G services cost $89 per month, compared to $68 for LTE.

The price gap between unlimited 5G and LTE plans is on average $72 per month. Of course, service providers can prevent abuse by restricting access when a certain threshold of data usage has been reached or by setting data caps.

The operators’ optional additions may explain some of the differences. Suppliers may implement hard caps or slow connections after a specific threshold to limit users’ data use.

#6. LTE vs 5G: Pervasive

In contrast to LTE, 5G is meant to be used everywhere. 5G promises to have substantially bigger and more consistent coverage than LTE, despite the trend toward smaller land masses per transmitter, or cell, as an inevitable consequence of the dense installation of smaller antenna elements.

5G’s primary focus is on improving the user experience. Relative to the national average of 16.31 Mb/s in the United States in 2018 with LTE, the least internet speed that customers may expect in crowded urban regions is 100 Mb/s.

This form of pervasive service requires a low-band spectrum in rural regions, while smart cities need a high-band spectrum. Over time, 5G has developed into an all-encompassing network infrastructure that links together disparate forms of communication.

Cognitive processes, such as artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, have proliferated with the help of 5G networks of integrated smart items. Experts predict that 5G will alter value chains and job prospects across many industries, not simply communications.

How Do I Switch From LTE to 5G?

Smartphones with 5G connectivity typically seamlessly switch between 4G LTE and 5G networks depending on your current activity, network conditions, battery life, and other considerations. Considering how much power and data 5G requires, that’s really kind of you. You may not always want your phone to use its smart connection settings, even if you have them active. There’s probably a way, although the specifics could change based on the OS you’re using.

To switch between “2G/3G/4G/5G auto” and “2G/3G/4G auto” on the smartphone, simply tap the appropriate option. There is an option to stay on the 5G network with some devices. The “5G” toggle in the TECNO Phantom X series’s on-the-fly configuration menu provides a good illustration.

Is it possible to convert from 5G to 4G LTE on a 5G phone? Without a doubt. Most current smartphones can automatically switch between 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks to use the quickest one. You can also make changes in the following ways on your phone:

Open the app’s settings
Tap Network and Internet Access.
Click the Mobile Connection option.
Choose your “Preferred network type.”
Select the most recent generation of network you wish to utilize.

AT&T LTE vs 5G

AT&T promotes both its LTE and 5G services equally, even though this is not the case. Many people, while considering the potential of LTE, will have 5G in mind rather than simple LTE. Since the announcement of the first LTE location, AT&T has essentially been pushing out its “vanilla” LTE service. It uses low-band spectrum exclusively, so it’s not quite LTE. Because of this, it is less suited to high-speed use but more suitable for long-distance signal reliability. Thus, while AT&T’s 5G is technically superior to the company’s current 4G LTE service, this superiority is largely cosmetic.

5G, on the other hand, uses millimeter waves and is thought to be superior because it more closely resembles what users will expect from AT&T LTE. Millimeter wave spectrum, in contrast to low-band spectrum, can provide much higher rates to end users. However, distance and obstructions are two of its biggest weaknesses. Nevertheless, consumers will be able to take advantage of both with the correct phone, as it will switch seamlessly between low-band and millimeter wave networks. However, that also shows the second problem with AT&T’s superior network, as the availability of 5G is not as widespread as the company’s conventional LTE network.

How Much Slower Is LTE Than 5G?

While LTE may reach rates of up to 100 Mbps, 5G can reach speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. The coverage of 5G networks is still in its infancy compared to that of LTE networks. In a head-to-head showdown, LTE’s and 5G’s respective capacities are 1,000 and 10,000 devices per cell, respectively.

Conclusion

When it comes to improved connectivity, LTE unquestionably has a big effect across all business sectors. This connection has been fast, reliable, secure, private, and has enough bandwidth. However, as time has progressed, more is required, and here is where 5G and its network potential shine. The introduction of 5G has revolutionized organizational practices and made numerous new opportunities for innovation possible. The possibilities for business are endless as we continue to use LTE and deploy 5G. This is a fascinating field as a result.

LTE vs. 5G FAQs

Why Is My 5G Not Showing Up?

Because the phone is desperately attempting to hold on, you might not experience 5G connectivity just yet. While it is possible to manually disengage a phone’s power-saving mode to regain full functionality, doing so may reduce the battery life of the device.

Why Does My Phone Say LTE Instead of WI-FI?

Wi-Fi networks typically offer faster speeds than 4G LTE ones. If your phone is too far away from the router, though, the Wi-Fi signals may become unreliable. In such a case, your mobile device will report an LTE signal instead of a Wi-Fi one.

Why Verizon Shows LTE Instead of 5G?

There is probably no 5G network in your neighborhood; therefore, your smartphone will read LTE instead.