Casey Boyer

1/20/11

What is 4G and All of the G’s That Came Before It?

All four of the nation’s leading carriers are now offering 4G coverage. That’s

really exciting but what is 4G. In simple terms 4G stands for fourth generation and that

is referring to the network. In reality 4G capabilities aren’t even close to being offered

yet by carriers. If that is true then how are they able to market something that isn’t

available? It is because the cell phone companies are using this as a marketing

strategy to increase sells. In this article I will explain to you what 4G is and what were

the G’s that came before it.

1G

Starting in the early 1980’s came the addition of new technology’s that would

change our culture forever. This technology was of course the cell phone. These cell

phones might have been very impractical because of their size and battery life but they

were ground breaking. For the first time ever you could communicate with other people

whenever and wherever you wanted (as long as you had reception). The very first

widely deployed cellular system in the United States was AMPS, Advanced Mobile

Phone Service, and was introduced in 1983 by AT&T. AMPS frequency can range

anywhere between 800 and 900 MHz. This allows for half of the range to be used for

receiving signals and the other half to transmit signals. Even though this was not the

very first generation of mobile telephone services to be developed it was the first

practical cell phones for mainstream users. This is when 1G was formed. It was purely

for voice transmission only. At this time no one was even thinking about data

transmission. Also these wireless phones were a luxury item that few could afford.

2G
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Then in the early nineties came the rise of digital cell phone networks. However

it was separated into three different groups that dominated different regions. In Europe

it was GSM that took over and in the United States was split between D-AMPS and

CDMA. This is what brought on the next generation which would be 2G. Unlike the

future generations this one was clearly the making of a completely new generation from

the first one. The main reason for that is because 1G used an analog network and 2G

used a digital network. The advantage of this was having improved sound quality,

better security, and higher total capacity. At this time was also the start of offering text

messaging. Along with text messaging networks started to support CSD, circuit-

switched data. This service allowed you to place a dial up call digitally allowing you to

transfer data faster. Again even though you had access to getting data on you cell

phone it wasn’t practical because it would be charged by the minute and service was

still very expensive in those days.

ITU

In order to categorize which generation a network is in there has to be standards

and that is where the ITU comes in. The International Telecommunication Union is an

agency for the UN to coordinate telecommunication operations. They decided to claim

the responsibility to create the requirements of each generation of network.

2.5G

Next moving into 2.5G is when things start to get complicated. In 1997 GPRS,

General Packet Radio Service was released. It allowed phones to use data whenever

they wanted. That means no more CSD in order to access data. The speed of it was

also improved to up 100kbps in theory but never got above 40kbps in its peak. Also
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instead of getting billed by the minute, carriers could now bill by the kilobyte. Now for

the reason why that it is suck in between 2G and 3G. At the time when this came out

the standards for 3G had already been set by the ITU, stationary speeds of 2Mbps and

mobile speeds of 384kbps. Even though this was a breakthrough technology it wasn’t

able to meet the standards of the ITU. Also

3G

Finally the signals that were marketed as 3G were UMTS to replace GSM and

CDMA2000 as a backwards compatible successor IS-95. Both of these networks also

used the always on data that GPRS used in the form of 1xRTT. Being launched in 2001

for CDMA2000 and 2003 for UMTS they still weren’t able to even come close to the

standards that were set by the ITU. Which is close to the situation that 4G is in right

now that will be explained later. These signals were later given updates and redefined

to finally reach the satisfaction of the ITU. CDMA2000 would get an upgrade that would

be EV-DO Revision o is able to do uploads of 150kbps. Then it would get another

update to EV-DO Revision A which can do ten times what Revision o could do. UMTS

would also evolve in to HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, and HSPA+ Evolution. The speed

was now able to reach anywhere from 14Mbps to 600Mbps. That leaves room to

question should some of these networks be categorized as something faster than 3G.

4G

Again regulated by ITU the standards for 4G are not only strict but closer to

outrageous. In order to be qualified for 4G technology you have to be able to have a

stationary download speed of 1Gbps and mobile download speed of 100Mbps. There

are two networks that succeed 3G. The WiMAX comes from the GDMA2000 and LTE
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comes from GSM. Although considered to be 4G technologies they are completely

dedicated to data. That leaves other networks picking up the voice data. Also the

speed that each network is able to produce is not near the speeds of true 4G. WiMAX is

able to top out at 40Mbps theoretically and LTE tops out at 100Mbps theoretically, while

both are only reaching around 4 – 30Mbps practically. Even though each network

promises to accomplish the goal of reaching 4G neither has been finalized yet with

production being years away.

Conclusion

In the end it seems that the ITU has backed down saying 4G “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.” Although

they may have won the battle of calling themselves 4G it will be a while before they are

true 4G.
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Works Cited
Akhtar, S. (n.d.). 2G-4G Network: Evolution of Technologies, Standards, and Deployment.

Sanchez, W. R. (1999, Sep 25). Advanced Mobile Phone Service. Retrieved from
SearchMobileComputing.com: http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Advanced-
Mobile-Phone-Service

Shepler, J. E. (2005, Apr 11). 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G. Retrieved from SearchMobileComputing.com:
http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/feature/1G-2G-3G-4G?
ShortReg=1&mboxConv=searchMobileComputing_RegActivate_Submit&

Ziegler, C. (2011, Jan 17). 2G, 3G, 4G and everything in between: an Engadget wireless primer. Retrieved
from Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/17/2g-3g-4g-and-everything-in-between-an-
engadget-wireless-prim/
Casey Boyer
1/20/11