What is 4G?

4G refers to the family of 4^th generation wireless standards with requirements to provide data rates of 100 Mbps for mobile users and up to 1 Gbps for stationary users amongst other technical requirements. 4G is a successor to 3G technologies such as WCDMA (UMTS) and CDMA 1xEV-DO.

The requirements for 4G are specified by the International telecommunications Union (ITU) under IMT-Advanced with detailed specifications scheduled to be released by early 2012 according to the ITU.

Based on the ITU’s recommendation in Oct 2010, only LTE-Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced, have successfully met the criteria for true 4G. So in reality, neither LTE nor WiMAX in their current states are officially 4G, only in their advanced states. But for marketing purposes, the carriers were more than eager to introduce their current technologies as 4G, the heck with pre-4G, almost-4G, or 3.9G!

And while they’re at it, why not call HSPA+ technology 4G? Well that’s what T-Mobile did. But to their credit, current HSPA+ download speeds are in line with their pre-4G counter parts, LTE and WiMAX.

But not to be out-done, the ITU in a press release issued on Dec 6, 2010 declared that the term 4G “may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed”. Which really means that LTE, WiMAX, and HSPA can all be “marketed” as “4G”! Yes, HSPA too.

Bottom Line

LTE-Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced are the only two technologies today that are officially recognized as true 4G IMT-Advanced contenders despite ITU’s giveaway of the term 4G for marketing purposes. And that might matter to you because it means LTE and WiMAX will be further evolved as 4G technologies while the HSPA evolution path is much shorter. So if you happen to be in the market for a new phone, and you care about download speeds, then you may want to go with an LTE phone so you are future proof. And I say LTE, not WiMAX, because the entire wireless technology body seems to be putting its weight behind LTE as the technology of the future, even WiMAX providers.