Our phones are increasingly demanding more data from the cellular networks and that’s clogging up the networks. That fancy high-speed LTE modem in your iPhone may soon be moving at a snail’s pace, especially in densely populated areas like San Francisco.

But San Diego chipmaker Qualcomm has a solution. It’s releasing a new LTE modem that will be able to access the unlicensed wireless spectrum. The unlicensed spectrum is the frequency that the Federal Communications Commission has set aside to be free. It can’t be acquired by big carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. Currently WiFi and Bluetooth exist on these unlicensed frequencies.

By moving over to unlicensed spectrum, phones will be able to access frequencies not so jammed up with traffic and potentially triple the speed of your phone’s data connection.

“Our key objective is to improve the performance and cost of wireless networks to help the burgeoning demand of data,” said Matt Grob, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Qualcomm, in an interview earlier Thursday.

There has been some worry that moving into unlicensed spectrum might interfere with WiFi networks, but Qualcomm said its LTE-U technology can coexist alongside WiFi, based on internal testing it’s done.

Qualcomm will be releasing the new LTE modem in the second half of this year to phone makers and we should expect to see phones equipped with it six to nine months later, said Grob.

In addition to releasing the LTE modem capable of accessing unlicensed frequencies, Qualcomm also needs to help build the network infrastructure. It’s releasing LTE chips that can access unlicensed frequencies for small cells, which are small radio access nodes used to improve a network’s reach. Wireless network operators can deploy this for their customers to give them access these frequencies. Qualcomm is also working on a version of these LTE chips that can be sold to restaurants and coffee shops–similar to the way retail locations set up WiFi hotspots.

Qualcomm isn’t the first to announce plans to roll out this kind of technology. A few days ago, T-Mobile said it would be installing small cell units for unlicensed radio bands with hardware built by Nokia Networks. But considering Qualcomm is the biggest provider of LTE modems in high-end Android phones, Qualcomm’s step in this direction is an important move.

Qualcomm’s announcement is yet another indicator that cellular networks and WiFi coming together more and more, said Grob. “Cellular is moving towards smaller radius, unlicensed spectrum and WiFi is moving from ad-hoc to more centralized management,” he said.

(Credit: Web)