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Cutting Through the 4G Hype
crimeandpunishment writes "Cell phone companies are about to bombard us with advertising for the next big thing — 4G access. The first 4G phone, Sprint Nextel's EVO, comes out this week. But just how big a deal is 4G? Is it fast enough to warrant the hype, or are consumers better off waiting a while? AP technology writer Peter Svensson looks at the differences between 4G and 3G technologies."
Canadian carriers just upgraded their networks to 3G, so I'm guessing we won't hear about 4G until 2015.
Raleigh-Durham, 4G since November as my primary home internet connection.
It doesn't work well in the rain or a thunderstorm. 6-7 Mbit down 1.5 or so up. That is as fast as the DSL connection I could get. I refuse to give money to Time Warner so that's out of the question.
The connection isn't as reliable as DSL or cable modem. It's kind of flaky and the DNS servers that come with Clearwire service are bad. Use Google's or opendns.
That said, it is basically a wireless DSL connection. It is way way faster than a 3G signal. Don't know how it will be on the EVO, but unless the iPhone 4G/HD blows me out of the water, when my iPhone 3G contract comes up in July, I'm going to Sprint to take advantage.
Technically speaking. The various G definitions are based on the underlying technology that is used for hauling the bits over the air interface 1G - Analog technology (AMPS et al) 2G - Digital transmission (GSM, TDMA, CDMA et al) 3G - WCDMA (UMTS (aka the orginal 3G), HSPA, EVDO et al) 4G - OFDM (LTE, WiMax et al)
I found this article to be poorly written and researched. Including such weasely gems as:
For consumers, 4G means, in the ideal case, faster access to data. For instance, streaming video might work better, with less stuttering and higher resolution. Videoconferencing is difficult on 3G and might work better on 4G. Multiplayer video games may benefit too.
might may might maybe
I hate sigs.
So, I take it that the author of this article is happy just using EDGE, right? Since that's only distinguished from 3G by its speed?
You can't use data on EDGE during a phone conversation (nor receive calls). It's actually more annoying than you might think.
With both 3G and 4G you can do both at once.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When Sprint & Verizon roll out their 4G networks will they be able to handle simultaneous voice and data
My sources say yes because 4G treats voice as VoIP.
Basically, the lower the frequency, the further it reaches. Verizon bought gobs of spectrum in the 700Mhz range, which is great for building penetration and longer reach. Compare that to Sprint/Clearwire's 2500Mhz spectrum, which is known to be blocked by wet leaves. T-mobile also bought spectrum in the 700Mhz range, but likely will use it to build out their 3G network.
AT&T pretty much sat that auction out, so I can't imagine their data service getting much better. I hope their pico cell strategy pans out.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
They already do. A 3G mobile broadband connection from any of the four major U.S. providers is limited to 5 GB per month, while Sprint plans to offer significantly higher monthly transfer caps to 4G customers.
CDMA is 3G. You could even make a decent argument that 3G is CDMA.
That depends on whether you're talking about cdmaOne or CDMA2000.
Yes they do here are my favorites..
http://www.chickenbrickstudios.com/games/projectinf
http://www.chickenbrickstudios.com/games/cestos
The 3G standard in Europe is UMTS, which has a Wideband CDMA at its core.
If anybody wants to really push "4G" product (using it as its defining quality), he's for a surprise...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia
Probably why that'll be 3G -> LTE actually; certainly why there's no S60v4 or 4xxx-series devices from Nokia.
One that hath name thou can not otter
I got one a week ago. if you live in a 4G network area, then it works well. You can connect and get 5-6MB. If you live in a 3G then you are going to connect at 1.6 or under.. maybe way under. But otherwise, it works pretty well. The only issue I have is that sometimes it doesn't power down correctly. Then I have to pull the battery (easy to do). It has a little screen on the front that tells you whether you are in a 3 or 4 G area and also what your connection speed is. The real issue is that 4G is just not available everywhere yet.
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
Read the article; it says AT&T will be offering 3G speeds that are faster than 4G.
Actually, they all run UMTS (3.5G) by now. (And 7Mb UMTS USB sticks for your laptop are not uncommon since at least five years ago.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Actually EDGE allows temporarily suspending the data connection (but retain the logical connection and IP address) to make or receive a voice call similar to V.92 modems.
GPRS, besides offering a lower bandwidth, has to completely terminate the data connection. For Web browsing this is not a big deal while for other purposes a proxy or tunnel may be used to hide the change of IP address.
Of course all this is only theoretical. The providers may not support these features at all.
Fully agree. Have the HTC Hero, and except for one emergency update (that turned it from "extremely slow" to "usable") nothing have happened. They promised a new version in November, but still haven't done anything. It will be my last HTC phone..
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
You should be able to update the Hero to 2.1 from the HTC site, and seeing how 2.2 was officially announced just a few weeks ago, I don't see what you're complaining about.