News
Issue #2002 - 38 (October 2002)
(Updated Oct. 8, 2002)

TECHNOLOGY

It Was 3G; Then Came 4G and Now it is 5G

Leading Finnish research institute VTT has released findings predicting that within 10 years third-generation (3G) mobile phone networks could be rendered obsolete by a new fifth-generation network - 5G, says the Sunday Business Newspaper.

By 2010, the new network should, according to VTT, already be capable of providing the high data speeds originally promised by 3G operators, offering services such as high-resolution real-time video. 

According to VTT, the term for fourth-generation mobile networks, 4G, is now being reserved for new roaming technology that will allow a single mobile handset to access this growing array of mobile networks. Mobile phones users will need to be able to connect to the different technologies underpinning the networks without having to make changes to their handsets. 

For example, while inside a building, the handset would connect to a WLAN base station. When walking down the road, the handset would link to a 3G mast, before returning to the old standard network in areas with poorer coverage. 

Where possible, users would expect to access the same kind of multimedia services irrespective of which network they were on, roaming easily between the different networks. 

Revenues from the type of multimedia application currently referred to as "3G services" would be shared across the various types of operator and would not be the sole preserve of those which have paid heavily for 3G licences. 

Pertti Raatikainen, a VTT research professor, said: "Over the next five-10 years GPRS, 3G and WLAN will all be accessible via multi-network terminals and this type of roaming between networks will be called '4G'. But beyond 2010 a new network labelled 5G will start to render 3G obsolete." 

By the time 5G comes along, VTT is also predicting a "revolution" that will enable fast downloads of large chunks of data, enough for a movie for example, across the internet. The user could access a 5G network to download a movie or video game and then store the data in a handset. 

According to VTT, one possibility is that 5G will take the form of a high-frequency network of a type currently being promoted by the European Commission initiative Samba, which is researching methods of developing a mobile wireless extension to today's fixed-line broadband internet networks. 

Source: Sunday Business of UK

For more information: http://www.sundaybusiness.co.uk 

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory:  This article does not give a clear picture of future wireless networks. It simply confuses the numbering scheme that the vendors use to denote future wireless network technologies. However, it does recognize the need for the industry to offer seamless roaming through multi-mode handsets and PDAs. This, we agree with completely. There are a number of wireless network technologies on the horizon that are candidates for 4G or cal it 5G. It is too early to tell which one will be the best technologically, economically and from migration point of view. Our notion of a future wireless network is a hybrid implementation of WLANs, UMTS/W-CDMA and broadband all united through a gateway of some kind behind these base station controllers and access points. Roaming is essential feature of these networks. Anybody who thinks of downloading a movie into a handset on future wireless networks does not appreciate the holistic concept of movie watching. Nonetheless, it does have limited entertainment value.

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