(Telecompaper) Nokia has announced the next stage in its LTE development, with the 4.5G Pro platform, and introduced plans for 4.9G, to help operators migrate to 5G. Powered by the Nokia AirScale radio portfolio, 4.5G Pro will deliver ten times the speeds of initial 4G networks, making it possible for operators to offer gigabit peak data rates, the company said. Using extended carrier aggregation techniques across up to five frequency bands, operators will be able to leverage their diverse paired (FDD) and unpaired (TDD) licensed spectrum as well as unlicensed spectrum, in line with local national regulations. While 4.5G Pro focuses on commercial devices expected available in 2017, Nokia is already planning for the next stage with the 4.9G system, which will offer significant capacity and data rate enhancements and network latency reductions, the company said. It will use cloud-based networks with intelligence added to the edge in order to reduce latencies to less than 10msec. The system is also expected to take advantage of new spectrum bands, such as Band 43, Band 42 and the 3.5 GHz band.