LTE subscriber base now accounts for 44% of all mobile subscriptions worldwide and is expected to keep growing until 2022. Based on the latest GSA data, there were 3.74B LTE connections globally at the end of September 2018 in comparison to 2.77B  connections a year earlier. LTE subscriptions are expected to reach 5.96B by 2022 end. 

E-UTRAN supports MR-DC via E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), also called MR-DC with EPC, in which a UE is connected to one eNB that acts as a MN and one en-gNB that acts as a SN. The eNB is connected to the EPC via the S1 interface and to the en-gNB via the X2 interface. The en-gNB might also be connected to the EPC via the S1-U interface and other en-gNBs via the X2-U interface.

2012 is going to be year of LTE in terms trials and commercial launches.

MATLAB has introduced its 5G Toolbox, which provides standards compliant waveforms and reference examples for modeling, simulation, and verification of the physical layer of 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) communications systems. 5G Toolbox can be used  to design algorithms and predict end-to-end link performance of systems that conform to the 5G Release 15 standard.

Sony Mobile Communications has launched two new LTE Android smartphones Xperia GX and Xperia SX for the Japanese market. LTE enabled Xperia smartphones support download speeds of up to 75mbps and comes with 1.5GHz dual core processors for faster performance and Reality Display. Xperia GX and Xperia SX will be available in the Japanese market from summer 2012.