Chipset solution vendors and telecom equipment providers, including Qualcomm, Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, Nokia and Huawei, are gearing up efforts to develop LTE-U (LTE unlicensed spectrum) solutions and technology, with a number of LTE-U-enabled devices likely to enter commercial production in the second half of 2015, according to industry sources.

LTE-U is designed to augment operators' services to use channels in the less crowded 5GHz unlicensed bands, and uses several coexistence features to support fair share use among the multiple users and technologies that access those bands, Qualcomm said in an earlier press release.

Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, is announcing the first integration of LTE-U into a small cell SoC to expand capacity and seamlessly extend LTE networks. The FSM99xx, a family of small cell SoCs, will add LTE-U and be available in the second half of 2015, said the company.

Qualcomm is also to announce the FTR8950 as the first dedicated RF solution for small cells designed to meet the requirements of LTE-U operation and network listen in unlicensed 5GHz bands.

At the ongoing MWC 2015, Qualcomm will conduct live demonstrations of the co-existence between LTE-U and Wi-Fi. Also at the show, Qualcomm is collaborating with operators, such as KT, and infrastructure vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Networks, Samsung, and test and measurement equipment manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz.

The development of LTE-U technologies and services in the US, Korea, India and China is likely to gain momentum as the LTE operators in these countries are allowed to utilize unlicensed spectrum currently, according to Peter Carson, senior director of product marketing at Qualcomm.

Commercial LTE-U devices in the US, Korea and China are likely to be built based on LTE Release 10 and beyond standards, while those in Europe and Japan are expected to be built based on the Release 13 LAA (Licensed Assisted Access) standards, indicated the sources, adding that commercial LTE-U products will begin to emerge in these markets in the second half of 2015.