Ericsson pushes plan to send wireless apps over unlicensed 5GHz spectrum

Ericsson announced wireless technology that's designed to improve coverage and speed for bandwidth-hungry smartphone applications such as streaming video.

Ericsson is creating a small cellular device that will cost about $2,000 when available later in 2015 that relies on software called Licensed Assisted Access. LAA allows wireless network traffic to work over both licensed and unlicensed spectrum, thereby giving carriers greater flexibility in improving application performance for smartphone users. The 5GHz spectrum is often used by Wi-Fi networks inside of buildings, but the LAA technology will automatically share traffic being switched from the cellular network with users already on the Wi-Fi network.