RAN Research Note: LTE in unlicensed spectrum Qualcomm pushes back against Wi-Fi

As technologies in unlicensed spectrum, notably Wi-Fi, become an integral part of a cellco‟s network, the logic of separating the radios which work in licensed or unlicensed bands starts to break down. In a future world where spectrum is more dynamically allocated and where different service providers can share bands, wireless technologies will start to spread across all kinds of frequencies, according to application rather than operator ownership. So Globalstar and Amazon are trialling a flavor of Wi-Fi in licensed airwaves in the US, while Qualcomm has made the highest profile bid so far to run LTE in the unlicensed bands.