subject: What Is 4g, And What Does It Mean For Your Business? [print this page] If you've been keeping an eye on the advertising for the major telecommunication companies lately, you'll notice that they're now advertising "4G" technology for their mobile phones.
But what is 4G? What's the difference between it and what's come before? And what does it mean to you at a business level?
What is 4G?
In short, 4G stands for "fourth generation" - as in, the fourth generation of mobile phone technology. Each generation of mobile phone operates on a different set of standards than the last, and these standards are incompatible with each other.
The very first mobile phones that appeared on the market in 1981 were defined as "first generation", or 1G. These were built on analog networks. In 1992, 2G was introduced, which ushered in the first digital cell phones.
In 2002, 3G was introduced. 3G introduced much faster transmission speeds, allowing phones to have multi-media capabilities.
4G is the latest generation of the technology, and is in the process of launching now.
What is the difference between 4G and 3G?
Firstly, the technical structure of 4G is fundamentally different than 3G, and results in much higher data rates.
For instance, the data rates of 4G are from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, while 3G only goes up to 2 Mbps. The real world results are that 4G networks are usually at least four times faster than 3G networks.
What does that mean for my mobile phone?
The longer-term result for business-oriented mobile phone users is a greater ability to execute data transmission-heavy programs and applications. For instance, the Internet surfing capabilities of mobile devices will improve, as will the multimedia capabilities of phones.
If you like to sneak a video game or two on your phone in your off-hours, gaming is expected to be vastly improved by the faster data rates of the 4G network.
What's on the horizon? If I move to 4G, is a better technology going to come out shortly thereafter?
Don't worry - 4G is brand new, and is the accepted next generation for mobile devices. Mobile phones generally operate for about ten years on a generation, and as 4G is just rolling out now, you can expect to be using the 4G network for many years to come!
