4G Mobile Technology - will it make a difference?

September 1, 2006 – 10:03 am

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A lot of hope was placed on 3G mobile technology. Vendors had hoped that the increased functionality would usher in an era of increased customer uses. They marvelled at the capabalities of 3G phones and networks, but in a lot of ways, 3G has fallen short of expectations. Well the cell phone makers are hardly sentimental-types, they’ve already moved on to the new darling: 4G.

What can you expect from 4G mobile technology?

“4G is to deliver high-speed broadband for data- and visual- centric information. Everything before 4G is voice-centric,” said Ali Tabassi, Sprint Nextel Corp. vice president for innovative technology.

4G places the emphasis for mobile networks directly where it needs to be: on data. Data is the obvious killer app of mobile tech, and the 4G tech promises to take complete advantage of utilizing data to the extreme.

With 4G, you can easily:

1) Share video
2) Access the interet at relatively high speeds
3) Share pictures
4) Use email

These are all things you can do with 3G, but the goal of 4G is to be able to do it a lot faster. The major point of 4G is to make the networks and phones much faster than they currently are at handling data. With this increase in speed comes a much needed increase in functionality, especially for power business users. The mobile phone industry is rapidly converging with personal computers, and in a lot of ways, has a big advantage over PC makers. If the phones in the next few years are even speedier and more adept at handling data, they have a real chance at taking market share.

The general consensus on 3G has been bleak:

“3G was a failure,” said Kim Ki-ho, Samsung’s senior vice president for telecommunications networks. “The market did not respond, and it is already becoming an old-fashioned technology.”

It’s hard to question the logic behind the move to 4G. The data services are the ones that will allow companies to sell both higher priced phones and service plans, which is necessary for continue growth. In Asia, lower priced phones are moving fast, and voice services are still increasing, but in the mature markets of Europe and North America, data services will be required to attract higher paying customers.

4G will not be widely popular until 2010, so for now you’ll need to settle for a bit less than is planned in the near future.

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