They fought a good fight, but now it’s over – the International Telecommunication Union, HQ for global wireless technology, has finally (perhaps begrudgingly) accepted LTE, HSPA+, and WiMAX as meeting now lowered 4G standards.
Until this point, the definition of 4G has remained fairly rigid – the ITU has been maintaining the distinction between third- and fourth-generation tech with expectations of peak download speeds at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (for vehicle-based usage) and 1 Gbit/s low mobility communication (sidewalk-walkers and their ilk). This description kept LTE-Advanced and WiMAX Advanced on their ‘nice’ list – the only problem being, neither is employed by any mobile phone providers, thus excluding all of the data services offered by most major carriers, whose wireless technologies, while definitely ‘3.5G’ –far surpassing the basic 3G requirements – do not meet the high bar set for ranking a generation up.
This strict classification of 4G hasn’t held much promise for the US wireless industry. Top carriers Sprint Nextel, Verizon, and MetroPCS have all been marketing their upcoming and in-the-running data technology as 4G since early 2010, and their weapons of choice – Sprint’s Clearwire/WiMAX connection and Verizon-MetroPCS’s LTE – fell short of the ITU’s requirements. However, thanks to the wonder and glory that is the US advertising industry (and the apparent bold arrogance of T-Mobile), this problem was easily circumvented by equating faster service with 4G speed – last month, T-Mobile caused quite a stir by advertising its better-than-3G technology as part and parcel of “America’s largest 4G network”.
While other carriers didn’t follow suit, claiming their customers preferred better data transfer speeds to better titles, the issue has since been rendered null and void; ITU has relaxed its standards, and deemed those 3.5 qualifiers to be 4G. “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,” the group said in a press release, confirming the allowances being made. This change, however kind to carriers, doesn’t do much for customers – will it allow providers too much wiggle room in future product advertisements? Or will Sprint and Verizon continue to take the high road, and keep their subscribers well informed on the progress they make? We’ll have to wait and see what impact (if any) the ITU’s conformity will make on the wireless industry.
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