Introduction

From the early analog mobile generation (1G) to the last implemented third
generation (3G) the paradigm has changed. The new mobile generations do not
pretend to improve the voice communication experience but try to give the user
access to a new global communication reality. The aim is to reach communication
ubiquity (every time, everywhere) and to provide users with a new set of services.
The growth of the number of mobile subscribers over the last years led to a
saturation of voice-oriented wireless telephony. From a number of 214 million
subscribers in 1997 to 1.162 millions in 2002 [1], it is predicted that by 2010 there
will be 1700 million subscribers worldwide [2] (see Figure 1). It is now time to
explore new demands and to find new ways to extend the mobile concept. The first
steps have already been taken by the 2.5G, which gave users access to a data
network (e.g. Internet access, MMS - Multimedia Message Service). However, users
and applications demanded more communication power. As a response to this
demand a new generation with new standards has been developed - 3G. In spite of
the big initial euphoria that evolved this technology, only one 3G network exists in
commercial use today. This network has been deployed in Japan in 2001 using
international standard IMT-2000, with great success.

Figure 1 Evolution of mobile and fixed subscribers [3]

In the last years, benefiting from 3G constant delays, many new mobile
technologies were deployed with great success (e.g. Wi-Fi). Now, all this new
technologies (e.g. UMTS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) claim for a convergence that can only be

achieved by a new mobile generation. This new mobile generation to be deployed

must work with many mobile technologies while being transparent to the final user.

History
A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages
of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a
"pocket-size folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". Early
predecessors of cellular phones includedanalog radio communications from ships
and trains. The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World
War II, with developments taking place in many countries. The advances in mobile
telephony have been traced in successive "generations", starting with the early
"0G" (zeroth generation) services, such as Bell System's Mobile Telephone
Service and its successor, the Improved Mobile Telephone Service. These "0G"
systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, and were very
expensive.

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. First commercially available handheld cellular mobile
phone, 1984.

The first handheld mobile cell phone was demonstrated byMotorola in 1973.
The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon
Telegraph and Telephone in 1979. This was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous
launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway
and Sweden.[6] Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s.
These first-generation (1G) systems could support far more simultaneous calls, but
still used analog technology.

Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first publicized handheld mobile phone call on a
prototype DynaTAC model on April 4, 1973. This is a reenactment in 2007.

In 1991, the second-generation (2G) digital cellular technology was launched

in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the
sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators.
Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan
by NTT DoCoMo on theWCDMA standard.[7] This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo
3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access (HSPA) family,
allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.
By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be
overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such
as streaming media.[8] Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized
fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to tenfold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available

technologies billed as 4G were theWiMAX standard, offered in North America

by Sprint, and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera.