Ericsson, AT&T, and MediaTek have completed what the companies describe as the first North American in-field trial of low-latency Layer 1/Layer 2 triggered mobility, known as LTM. The testing took place on AT&T’s radio access network, which is powered by Ericsson equipment. This effort follows a previous demonstration conducted in Japan in February 2026, where Ericsson and MediaTek performed the world’s first joint in-field LTM trial with Japanese carrier KDDI.
The LTM feature is part of Ericsson’s 5G-Advanced critical IoT portfolio. Its primary function is to shorten the interruption time that occurs during handovers between cell towers. According to the companies, this results in faster and more reliable connections for users and equipment that are in motion. During the testing phase, LTM reduced data interruption during cell changes by up to 25% compared to legacy Layer 3 mobility. The broader LTM feature set is capable of cutting handover interruption time by up to 40%.
The companies stated that reducing handover interruptions supports real-time applications and emerging use cases. These include extended reality, time-critical communications, immersive video conferencing, and cloud applications. The partners noted that near-seamless mobility is essential for extended reality and cloud-based services, as interruptions during cell changes can cause user frustration, customer churn, safety risks, and disruptions to industrial or mission-critical operations.
The technology also aims to strengthen the network foundation required for AI-driven applications. Many emerging AI workloads, such as real-time extended reality scene reconstruction, edge-assisted perception, industrial automation, and connected vehicle analytics, depend on continuous data exchange, low jitter, and predictable latency as devices move. LTM is designed to help AI-powered experiences operate reliably at scale by minimizing mobility-induced disruption between devices, the edge, and the cloud.
Ericsson served as the radio access network vendor for the joint field trials and has been a lead contributor to LTM’s development and standardization within 3GPP. The feature is viewed as an enabler of more consistent data rates throughout a device’s connection and could reduce handover failure rates across services.
