T-Mobile today said it is working on new technology called Licensed Assisted Access. According to T-Mobile, LAA is an LTE-based technology that helps combine licensed and unlicensed spectrum in order to increase peak and average data speeds while also reducing latency. T-Mobile says LAA pairs LTE's quality of service controls with WiFi in order to improve coverage and throughput. The company has added LAA to its technology roadmap and plans to begin trialling it in some capacity later this year. T-Mobile points out that there's currently about 550MHz of under-used spectrum in the 5GHz range (typically reserved for WiFi) that could be tapped to help with LTE via LAA. T-Mobile didn't say when it expects to begin trials of LAA with consumer-grade equipment.


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