Feb 13thWhat is 4G Wireless Technology
With all the talk around about 4G and the wireless industry, before we can get into what is 4G and LTE Technology, let’s take a little trip down memory lane with the Mobile phone. We need to take a quick look at the evolution over the years that this technology has made.
1G
This was known as the first generation of wireless. It was first introduced to the world in the 80’s and used an analog technology. It was where phones such as the brick phone or car phones would put out 3 watts of power for better range and a cellular tower could cover an area of about 40 to 50 miles without any issues due to the lack of data transmissions and the error correcting it requires, it was strictly used for voice phone calls. The phones were larger in size and a lot more durable.
2G
Next came the second generation of wireless technology. This evolved came about in the early 90’s and was the introduction of digital such as TDMA, CDMA 1X and GSM GPRS came into the picture. This was when data on the phone began its existence. It was still very slow data but it was a beginning and the consumer started to have the options of surfing the internet while on the move. The phones got a lot smaller and due to the digital technology and the error corrections needed for data, coverage started to degrease on sites requiring carriers to deploy more sites for a particular area. It also is when the power on the phones started to degrease to allow for more battery life due to the sites were closer together and the signal not needing to travel as far.
***Note*** All Generations after this point were just developed to increase the speeds of data for the consumer and to allow them a better internet experience while on the move.
2.5G
This generation was a bridge between 2G and 3G. It was basically a change made to the GSM technology moving it from GPRS to EDGE. This change increased the data speeds for customers.
3G
Third Generation of Wireless was a major breakthrough with data speeds. With this generation speeds on devices move to as high as 3.1MB per second. It was when the development of CDMA EVDO was first introduced.
3.5G
This generation was once again just a Bridge between 3G and 4G. it was the deployment of UMTS and HSPA+. Some wireless carriers advertise that HSPA+ is 4G but the ITU does not recognize this and considers it 3.5G.
4G to
Now let’s talk about the fourth generation of wireless technology. ITU states 4G is anything up to 100Mb per second. However they do state that they consider LTE to be 4G even though it doesn’t meet this requirement. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and was a major breakthrough in data speeds. We are now seeing speeds up to approximately 22Mb per second or more. However, to support these speeds many things had to change as far as infrastructure for the carrier. You know have to have more band width to a cell site than ever imagined needing. This puts a big burden on carriers to support. If you think about it. If you have let’s say 10 customers on a site all wanting to do 22Mb per second, the carrier has to have 220MB of bandwidth just to that one site.
Due to this increase in bandwidth at both the cell site and at the switching locations, there has been a very limited deployment, to date, of this technology. The deployment will increase but as you can imagine it starts in the major cities and moves out as customer demand increases. Smaller communities may not see LTE deployed in their area for some time.
I must also mention there is one other form of 4G wireless technology that ITU recognizes and that is WiMax. WiMax has far superior data speeds for the consumer but there are major drawbacks for carriers such as the foot print the cell site covers from one location. They are very limited in coverage and thus require many more sites. Also very few of the major Wireless Carriers have opt to use this technology so roaming options are very limited.
There are two issues with 4G/LTE technology that the consumers should be aware of:
1) As wireless carriers are not held to any standard as far as advertising. Some carriers are actually still 3G or 3.5G with speeds but still advertise they are 4G. Some actually considered 3.5G to be 4G and thus confuse the consumer with their advertising. I have even seen carriers stating they are 4G but still sell the same phones and devices as when they were 3G.
2) Since all wireless carriers will now be using the same technology. It benefits the consumer by letting a phone work with different carriers but it also means that the smaller carriers that survive on roaming revenue can see that loss of revenue due to less roaming partners a carrier needs. That may force some of the smaller carriers out of business and that in itself is not good for consumers when it comes to competition.
In closing, as 4G and LTE still new to the consumer and the wireless industry, a lot of issues that may evolve have not all yet been discovered. Let’s just hope that this technology actually turns out to be as great as all the hype is over it in the world. Also let’s hope that since the speeds are so great and the costs to support those speeds are great to the carrier, that we don’t see data plan costs go up. We already see a lot of the carriers starting to implement limits and either charging you for going over or slowing you back down to 2G speeds when you reach your limit.
Related articles
- Where’s the promised savings from 4G LTE? (gigaom.com)
- Why upgrading to LTE is important for carriers and consumers (canadiantechblogger.com)
- Why Does My iPhone 4S Now Say 4G, Not 3G? Because it is* – PC Magazine (pcmag.com)
- 4G or Not 4G: A Guide to Cut Through All the “Fast” Talk (allthingsd.com)
Dec 18thWhy Can’t I Use My Old Phone on My New Wireless Carrier?
First let me start off by saying that I do not write these articles about the Wireless Phone Business to defend the carriers and the way they operate. I would be the first to tell you that from my experience in the industry for many years running one of them, that it is a business like everything else an it’s all about maximizing rate of return on investment when it comes to customers and charges.
I get asked a lot from people when they learn who I am, as to why when they switch from one carrier to another they usually have to purchase a new phone? This is actually a very simple answer but I will need to explain in more detail how a phone or data device works for you to understand.
First thing you have to understand that until everyone goes to LTE technology, that there are basically two types of Digital systems made in the wireless industry.
1) The first is CDMA which is the technology used by such carriers such as Verizon and Sprint
2) The second is GSM/UMTS which is the technology used by Carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile
The first reason you can’t move your phone is probably the most obvious to people, that is that if you are moving from one digital technology to another, the phone will not be designed to work on the other carriers technology.
The second reason is actually the most complicated to explain but I will try and list it all for you. This would be the case if you were moving from a CDMA carrier to a CDMA carrier or the same for GSM/UMTS Carriers.
It all comes down to the programming of the phone itself. There are so many parameters that go into the programming of a cellular phone to make it work the way customers are accustomed to. This includes things such as to how to do run applications like SMS, MMS, and WAP. Each one of the applications in the phone requires certain programming to match the carrier’s equipment. This includes things such as DNS server IP addresses, how often the phone scans for a stronger signal, the max size of a picture to be sent via MMS, and things along that line. These are all settings that are installed in the phone in what is called a PRI file.
Many of you may have heard of a PRL file, which is where the phone gets its roaming list from as to who the phone can roam on and who it cannot. But actually the more important file is called a PRI and that is what tells the phone how to operate in general. This has become even more complicated of a file since the introduction of data aps and the internet.
You will see all over the internet in forums about people unlocking or hacking a phone. 90% of the time this is just enough to allow you to change the phone number or the data address of the device, most of the time doesn’t unlock it enough to allow someone to change the entire PRI. Unlocking a phone usually just allows someone to use a tool called QPST or CDMA Toll that can go into the phone and change particular parameters that will allow you to make phone calls or surf but doesn’t actually allow you to change fields used for MMS and WAP and certain other applications.
To truly change the PRI for a particular vendor phone you have to have flashing software and tools. Almost every manufacturer of mobile devices has their own version of the QPST for doing that. To get that software you usually have to be a seller of that manufacturer or a carrier before it is totally shared with you.
As you can imagine a carrier is not going to have this software available at all sales stores you may go into to sign up for service. A company may only have 1 or 2 copies of this software and that is just for testing in there lab the different models of phones and how they operate in different scenarios.
Also not all phones are alike, some of the major carriers will actually put each phone model through extensive testing on their network to make sure it meets certain criteria. There are some models of phones that may drop more calls than others because of the way the antenna is built into the device. They won’t allow these models on their network because it just opens up the opportunity for customers to start calling and complaining about the service, when it’s actually the device they are using not the service. This is very expensive for most carriers to perform so you will find only the major carriers will have test labs..
Even with the emergence of LTE and the fact that all carriers will eventually go to LTE, This technology doesn’t support voice calls as the average consumer thinks of it. Voice calls will actually be made over a data application and in order to perform these functions there are even more detailed requirements that must be put into each phone based on the home carriers system. LTE does solve the problem of different digital technologies on different carriers but the other issues will still prevail.
So as you can see there are some technical reasons why a carrier will not let you bring a phone from one carrier to another carrier. It’s more about the phone itself and the programming of it than it is about the carrier wanting to sell you something new. I agree, it’s very frustrating as a customer to have to purchase a new phone if you are changing carriers. Again, you can hack them and unlock them to allow you to do the basics, but you still can’t expect a carrier to do that for you due to time and effort. Even the IPHONE when it is hacked into the only real data most people can get is via Wi-Fi and not 3G.
Related articles
- What is 4G Wireless Technology (lifetraveler.net)
- What is the best carrier in the US? (techradar.com)
- How Phone will Travel (lifetraveler.net)
