With apologies to Shakespeare right off the top, 4G or not 4G, that is the question. In the wireless world, if 2010 is known for nothing else, it will be known for Droids, Evos, iPads, and 4G. This has been a year of great technological advancement, even in the midst of the “Great Recession.” With technological advancement comes the torrent of marketing support that helps Droids, Evos, and iPads succeed, and wildly so.
Which brings me to 4G. A few days before Thanksgiving, Chicago Tribune reporter Wailin Wong wrote a story that essentially questions whether T-Mobile’s new wireless services which are touted as 4G, are in fact, exactly that. The article correctly points out that T-Mobile’s service is HSPA+, which is a wireless standard that is considered by the International Telecommunications Union Radiotelecommunication Sector (ITU-R) to be a 3G technology. It doesn’t end there.
Clearwire and Sprint, which rely on WiMAX to provide its regional wireless networks, markets its service as 4G. However, the WiMAX standard remains very much a 3G standard based on the ITU-R definition.
Enter player number 3. On December 5, Verizon Wireless introduced Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in Chicago and several other metro areas and marketed it, as, you guessed it, 4G. Is it 4G? No, it is not, according to the ITU-R or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Both agencies consider LTE to be a 3G technology.
If none of the above is 4G, then what exactly is 4G? ITU-R defines 4G as having a target peak data rate of 100 Megabits/second for mobile access, and 1 Gigabit/second for local wireless access. ITU-R also recommends that 4G systems provide scalable bandwidths of up to 40 MHz. While the new Sprint, Clearwire, T-Mobile, and Verizon systems are faster than their 3G predecessors, they don’t yet clear the bar set by ITU-R for 4G systems, especially for peak data rates.
So, if what’s out there isn’t really 4G, why call it something that it isn’t?
Those of us who follow broadband issues are constantly aware of one nagging and irritating truth–the United States is ranked considerably behind other parts of the world in the area of broadband advancement. Southeast Asia and Europe are already enjoying mobile broadband speeds that far exceed those that wireless providers offer in the US. While most American wireless users probably don’t care about that, some do, especially those who need advanced wireless devices for their jobs, their education, or for other important purposes. For these users, any advancement, regardless of whether it depends on LTE or WiMAX, is a major step forward. While they would love to have what users in Singapore or Germany have, the wireless system in the US isn’t there yet. So, that major step forward is what wireless marketers are saying is 4G, even though the ITU-R and ETSI say otherwise.
Given that most American wireless users have recently graduated from 2G phones to 3G phones, if it’s called 4G, does it really matter all that much? A few years ago, during its summer rerun season, NBC’s advertising campaign for second-run programs stated “If you haven’t seen it before, it’s new to you.” So, would WiMAX and LTE be new to you?
The answer is probably so, especially if your last phone was a small flip model with a screen not much larger than a postage stamp, was not particularly good at texting, and could not receive videos well, if at all. In that case, it doesn’t matter what you called a WiMAX or LTE phone as long as it was better than the one you had. For most of us, that’s generally true, even if you’re graduating from a two-year-old Blackberry to a brand-new Droid Pro. In the end, we know what the marketers know–newer is better, faster is better, and more is better, and if it happens to meet the ITU-R or ETSI definition of 4G, great. If not, that’s OK too.
So, we come right back to the question – 4G or not 4G? And my reply is that it’s 4G if you want to believe. So, if you’re looking for that Droid, Evo, or iPhone 4 may your search be rewarded, or your wish be granted, and your phone, 3G or 4G, is all that you hope it will be.