4G doesn't exist : a mobile telecoms history

4G is a figment of our imagination - that's the message this week from IT, media and telecoms analysts Strand Consult. A handy, easy-to-grasp way of referring to the next generation of mobile telecoms, 4G is a phrase regularly used by the media, and even some analysts. But, Strand point out, it doesn't actually exist!

At each stage of telecoms development, there needs to be an agreed standard, a technology which is widely adopted in favour of all others in order that everything will still function across networks created by different manufacturers. Generally, the technology names are only used by those in the know, and the media - and therefore the public - refer to each standard by the generation of technology it represents. So loosely speaking, analogue systems would have been 1G - the first generation of telecoms standards. 1G was replaced in 1987 by the GSM standard, which formed the basis for mobile communication as we know it - 2G. More recently we've seen the advent of the IMT-2000 standard, which became the foundation of 3G - the standard usually used for fast mobile data transfers, and a phrase which became very much part of the language with the arrival of smart phones.

Which brings us up to date. So where does 4G fit in? Well, the next technology along the line is LTE - or Long Term Evolution, which is often referred to as 4G. But as the name suggests, LTE is actually an evolution of an existing standard, not a new standard in its own right. It is part of the existing IMT-2000 standard and therefore part of what we generally refer to as 3G.

So, 2G, 3G, 4G - does it really matter? Well, not really. Advances are being made - and will continue to be made - all the time, providing us with better, faster mobile broadband, whatever generation it is, and that's what matters.