{"id":49615,"date":"2012-05-15T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T08:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=49615"},"modified":"2012-05-15T10:03:40","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T08:03:40","slug":"forget-4g-4-5g-is-here-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/columns\/49615-forget-4g-4-5g-is-here-soon.html","title":{"rendered":"Forget 4G – 4.5G is here soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The battle over whether LTE<\/a> can be called 4G is ongoing, but that has not stopped analysts from beginning to punt 4.5G technologies.<\/p>\n

A recent analyst report from the Bank of America\/Merrill Lynch titled \u201cA vision of the near future: LTE Advanced (4.5G)\u201d laughed off the International Telecommunication Union\u2019s (ITU)<\/a> definition that LTE Advanced is in fact 4G.<\/p>\n

The ITU\u2019s definition clearly states that \u201cLTE-Advanced<\/a> and WirelessMAN-Advanced<\/a> should be accorded the official designation of IMT-Advanced, and hence 4G\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is however a challenge: many operators and industry players are calling their LTE and WiMax<\/a> networks \u20184G\u2019 (including Apple<\/a>), which means that a new term had to be used to continue the hype.<\/p>\n

4.5G to the rescue.<\/p>\n

The Bank of America\/Merrill Lynch report sets the scene right from the outset with their first sentence: \u201cFaster, better user experience, efficient use of spectrum\u2026LTE Advanced is the next wireless upgrade, beyond LTE\/4G \u2013 essentially 4.5G\u201d.<\/p>\n

The \u2018G\u2019 hype must continue, and The Bank of America\/Merrill Lynch can therefore be nearly excused for calling LTE Advanced 4.5G to differentiate it from LTE (which is called 4G).<\/p>\n

In South Africa operators may be hesitant about calling their LTE networks 4G after Cell C<\/a> was raked over the coals due to its 4G marketing campaign (for its HSPA+<\/a> network). This is however not the case internationally, and SA may well be the last telecoms outpost which actually cares about the ITU\u2019s 4G definition.<\/p>\n

\"LTE<\/a>

LTE Advanced is 4.5G?<\/p><\/div>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s official: LTE, WiMax and HSPA+ not 4G<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Should LTE be called 4G?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What is in a G?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to strict scientific definitions 4G is yet to arrive in the world, but analysts are already punting the benefits of 4.5G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[11513,2542,35,2490,9177],"class_list":["post-49615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-4-5g","tag-4g","tag-headline","tag-lte","tag-lte-advanced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49733,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49615\/revisions\/49733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}