What is 3G & 4G, 3G & 4G in Pakistan.

What is 3G & 4G, 3G & 4G in Pakistan.

Contents: 3G vs 4G

1 What is 4G? 2 4G Speed vs. 3G 2.1 Speed Test Results 3 Design Principle and Applications 4 Relevance 5 Recent News 6 References

A 3G (CMDA) tower, viewed from the bottom up.

What is 4G?

The definition of 4G has changed over the years. Current commercially available technologies LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and WiMax claimed that they are sufficiently advanced from 3G and thus claimed the right to call their technology 4G. However, in October 2010, the global standards group International Telecommunication Union declared that after long study, it had determined which technologies truly qualified for its IMT-Advanced label i.e. 4G (fourth-generation). The target speed was at least 100 Mbps to qualify for the 4G label. Only two systems made the list: LTE-Advanced, an emerging version of LTE technology, and Wireless MAN-Advanced, the next version of WiMax, also called WiMax 2. Neither is commercially available yet.
But in December 2010, the standards body softened its stance. In a press release, the ITU stated:

As the most advanced technologies currently defined for global wireless mobile broadband communications, IMT-Advanced is considered as '4G,' although it is recognized that this term, while undefined, 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.

This opened the door for LTE, WiMax and HSPA+ to be designated 4G because these technologies can all deliver multiple megabits per second upstream and downstream, far more than most existing 3G networks. ^[1] The following video explains some of the concepts behind 2G, 3G and 4G terminology for wireless network generations:

4G Speed vs. 3G

How much faster is 4G compared to 3G? Unfortunately for consumers, the answer to this question is more nuanced than one would like. The speed of a 3G network depends upon how it is implemented. In the US, by 2010 Sprint and Verizon (both CDMA networks) had reached the limits of how fast they could make their 3G networks. Upgrading to 4G networks allowed them to offer data transmission speeds up to four times faster than their 3G networks. However, the 3G networks of GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile were designed such that there was room to upgrade 3G speeds. As of mid-2010, it is anticipated that when AT&T and T-Mobile upgrade their 3G networks, their speeds will become comparable to 4G from Sprint and Verizon.

Speed Test Results

Results from a speed test comparing Sprint's 4G and 3G networks (using a Samsung Epic 4G phone) and AT&T's 3G network (using a Dell Streak) show that Sprint 4G is considerably faster than both Sprint 3G and AT&T 3G. These test results were posted in October 2010.

Design Principle and Applications

Both 2G and 3G networks were designed primarily for voice communications rather than data. On the other hand, 4G is designed especially for data transmission rather than voice. So 4G offers faster access to data using mobile phones. For example, streaming video works better with 4G, with less stuttering and a higher resolution. Similarly, video conferencing and multi-player online games work better with the faster data transmission offered by 4G.