Who needs cell towers when you have LTE Direct?

Qualcomm has been working on the next generation of wireless technology for the last seven years. They’re calling it LTE Direct and as the name suggests, it’s built on top of the LTE protocol and will allow devices to communicate directly without the assistance of a cell tower. As Technolog Review points out, LTE Direct works at distances greater than 500 yards which means its range extends much further than Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also uses very little energy so a device can constantly scan for a signal without being a serious battery drain.

Picture this. You walk into the subway but you don’t lose service. Instead, your phone lights up with useful alerts—the train is delayed, a nearby kiosk is running a sale, your friend is standing on the other end of the platform. Meanwhile, there’s not a cell tower within 500 yards. This is the world powered by the future of smartphones: LTE Direct. For the past seven years, Qualcomm has been developing the next generation of wireless technology. As the name implies, LTE Direct is built on top of the LTE protocol that’s already helping your smartphone connect to a cell tower and transfer data at high speeds. LTE Direct doesn’t just talk to towers, though. Instead, it enables mobile devices to talk directly to each other, and at distances greater than 500 yards no less. This is much, much farther than what Wi-Fi and Bluetooth allow.