Stupid ?? about 4G

[susanktz]

Ok... I'm glad this is an anonymous forum.

What exactly does 4G mean? What is the benefit of having it?

 

[RiverOfIce]

Ok... I'm glad this is an anonymous forum.

What exactly does 4G mean? What is the benefit of having it?

Not to be a complete jerk, but 4g is a marketing term. In general terms, it means not 3g.

True 4g is defined by the IMT-Advanced. No current technology comes close to meeting the requirement. But for the wiki page offers a good idea.

4G - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By any measure, wimax is not 4g. Wimax is an version much like your wifi connections.

In the real world, you will never see any technology meet the requirement set forward by the imt-advanced. In the real world, the fastest servers being used limit incoming connections to 50mbps, well short of the 100mbps needed to meet the requirements. Battery life, build out, and towers saturation will all limit the ability to reach the defined speeds.

The benefit is really too many to list. 1.) The over all speed to the consumer is increased to a speed that is "fast enough". 2.) The efficiency of bandwidth use will allow more users to access 1 tower. 3.) Allows for 100% carrier control over access and consumer use patterns (lte only). 4.) Will allow ip based connections, which will make services like video chats, video games, and networks accessible from every where better for the consumer.


The only one reason the carriers want to move to 4g is because of spectrum efficiency and to harvest extra income from pay-per-use services (lte).

But once again, wimax, what sprint uses for it's 4th generation wireless service, is really not 4g as defined by the current standards.