LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the next step after the UMTS (3G) technology, which is presented as an advance to the fourth generation of mobile telephony, or 4G, introducing significant improvements in terms of data connection management and transmission efficiency, which ultimately results in mobile networks with high capacity for downloading data and with lower operating and maintenance costs. The characteristics of 4G networks make them ideal to support the mobile networks of the future, however, they imply important modifications in the infrastructures of operators and, at the same time, compatible mobile terminals are needed, so for their deployment and operation investments are required both by operators and users.
LTE allows a theoretical download speed of 300 Mbit/s; the evolution of this technology, known as LTE Advanced will present the necessary characteristics to be called 4G, offering theoretical speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s for users in a fixed location and 100 Mbit/s for users in mobility.
As for 3G connections, it must be taken into account that the bandwidth capacity of LTE and 4G technologies is shared by all users who are simultaneously connected to the same base station, and at the same time the quality of the connection depends on the distance from the user to the station and on the existing interferences, so the individual download speeds for each user can vary and, in fact, tend to be lower than the theoretical maximums.