What is 4G?
The battle between Cell C, Vodacom and MTN over the term 4G continued last week at the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa when Cell C appealed a previous ruling which prohibited it from using the term 4Gs in its advertising and marketing.
While Cell C argued that their 4Gs campaign is not linked to the technical 4G term, Vodacom and MTN feel that the two terms are directly related and that Cell C is proactively trying to mislead consumers into believing that they have a 4G network.
However, Cell C added that despite the fact that they are not advertising a 4G network, a recent ITU press statement essentially confirms that their 21Mbps HSPA+ network qualifies as 4G.
4G is a sensitive issue not only in South Africa. Numerous international operators such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are all claiming to have 4G networks, and providers such as Samsung are actively marketing their LTE dongles as 4G.
ITU statement
Most sources related to the various generations (G) of cellular wireless standards state that HSPA is 3.5G, HSPA+ is 3.75G while LTE is classified as 3.9G.
However, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) put the cat among the pigeons in December 2010 when they released a press statement regarding the 4G issue.
“Following a detailed evaluation against stringent technical and operational criteria, ITU has determined that ‘LTE-Advanced’ and ‘WirelessMAN-Advanced’ should be accorded the official designation of IMT-Advanced,” the ITU said.
“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 statement made many people believe that the ITU now sees LTE, WiMax and evolved 3G technologies like HSPA+ as 4G. In reality, this does not seem to be the case.
ITU spokesperson Sanjay Acharya told MyBroadband that the ITU sees IMT-Advanced as 4G.
“Since 2000, IMT-2000 has been widely deployed and referred to as 3G. ITU has now announced the next-generation of standards for global wireless broadband communications, known as IMT-Advanced,” said Acharya.
Acharya added that the ITU has determined that “LTE-Advanced” and “WirelessMAN-Advanced” should be accorded the official designation of IMT-Advanced, and hence 4G. The detailed specifications of these IMT-Advanced technologies will be provided in a new ITU-R Recommendation expected in early 2012.
But what about the December 2010 ITU statement?
Acharya explains that the term 4G remains undefined, but noted that it is being applied by operators to the forerunners of IMT-Advanced technologies such as HSPA+, LTE, and WiMax, which provide a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed.
It is understood that the ITU therefore does not officially endorse the use of the term 4G in relation to HSPA+, WiMax or LTE, but rather just stated that the term is used by various operators to indicate that their networks offer a significant improvement over traditional 3G networks.
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