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The 4G definition that matters
Story by Chris Nicoll. Submitted on March 31, 2010 ·
By Chris Nicoll, Distinguished Research Fellow, Yankee Group
The ITU definition for 4G is very clear - defining a mobile connection of at least 100MB for highly mobile users (typical cell user) and up to 1GB for low mobility users (think WiFi range). The problem is that the ITU definition and all that means is lost on the general population, and we can thank the operators for that. The problem they are dealing with is how to get THEIR users interested in higher priced, higher value services now while ‘true’ 4G is still years away? Simple, since 3G has been around for a while to so-so performance for many users, we just call the ‘next generation’ of the high speed network ‘4G’ and let the standards bodies do their own thing.
At CTIA ‘4G’ and ‘LTE’ were used nearly synonymously. In most of my meetings at CTIA with both equipment vendors and operators I asked them to give me a definition of 4G. Interestingly enough, most gave me a description of what 4G is or the benefits until my very last appointment of the conference. Everyone from VZW and Sprint to NSN and Huawei talked about how individual user speeds were increasing into the 10’s of MB range (VZW saying its LTE trials were showing rates upwards of 50MB on the down link), that latency control is greatly improved for better quality video service, that the flat IP infrastructure is lower-cost and more application friendly. All very true, but missing the point.
My last meeting with ALU finally revealed the answer. Dan Locklear, Sr Director for LTE Solutions Marketing finally hit the nail on the head: ‘4G is a disruptive change in the user experience’.
There are a lot of things IN that definition that creates the disruptive change, but for a simple phrase, I think that captures it. THAT is what users are looking for: something better than they had, doing things better and maybe differently than before, and for some entering into an entirely new world where video is accessible and the performance is acceptable.
We are looking at how this ‘disruptive change’ is occurring, in everything from tracking evolutions in backhaul, core and transmission technologies, to the application and ecosystem environment, cloud, and how the proliferation of the newest generation of devices makes it easy for a user to increase their network data usage by over 100x in 30 days.
Story by Chris Nicoll. Submitted on March 31, 2010 ·
By Chris Nicoll, Distinguished Research Fellow, Yankee Group
The ITU definition for 4G is very clear - defining a mobile connection of at least 100MB for highly mobile users (typical cell user) and up to 1GB for low mobility users (think WiFi range). The problem is that the ITU definition and all that means is lost on the general population, and we can thank the operators for that. The problem they are dealing with is how to get THEIR users interested in higher priced, higher value services now while ‘true’ 4G is still years away? Simple, since 3G has been around for a while to so-so performance for many users, we just call the ‘next generation’ of the high speed network ‘4G’ and let the standards bodies do their own thing.
At CTIA ‘4G’ and ‘LTE’ were used nearly synonymously. In most of my meetings at CTIA with both equipment vendors and operators I asked them to give me a definition of 4G. Interestingly enough, most gave me a description of what 4G is or the benefits until my very last appointment of the conference. Everyone from VZW and Sprint to NSN and Huawei talked about how individual user speeds were increasing into the 10’s of MB range (VZW saying its LTE trials were showing rates upwards of 50MB on the down link), that latency control is greatly improved for better quality video service, that the flat IP infrastructure is lower-cost and more application friendly. All very true, but missing the point.
My last meeting with ALU finally revealed the answer. Dan Locklear, Sr Director for LTE Solutions Marketing finally hit the nail on the head: ‘4G is a disruptive change in the user experience’.
There are a lot of things IN that definition that creates the disruptive change, but for a simple phrase, I think that captures it. THAT is what users are looking for: something better than they had, doing things better and maybe differently than before, and for some entering into an entirely new world where video is accessible and the performance is acceptable.
We are looking at how this ‘disruptive change’ is occurring, in everything from tracking evolutions in backhaul, core and transmission technologies, to the application and ecosystem environment, cloud, and how the proliferation of the newest generation of devices makes it easy for a user to increase their network data usage by over 100x in 30 days.
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