3G and 4G terminology have been thrown around TV commercials lately as much as Bravo’s Reality TV ads. And yes, it’s true: I’m a die-hard Real Housewives of New York City fan. Go Bethany! Back to the subject: What the heck is 4G? And do we really need it? Is it that much better than 3G that Sprint is saying their phone is now the best?
They both represent thethird and fourth generations of mobile technology. The biggest differences are the rate of data transfer and signal quality. The faster data transfer eliminates echoes and delayed words. Signal quality cuts down on dropped calls and static noise. Also, internet surfing, e-mailing, and texting are faster on 4G
So, how fast is it? The current 4G is 3-4 times faster than 3G. In technical support terminology, 3G will reach peakdownload speeds of 3.1 Mbps versus 4G’s 10 Mbps. That’s lightning fast, and will only get faster since phone providers are looking to reach ultra-broadband levels at gigabits per second. 3G reaches 20-50x faster than dial-up which is still pretty decent and has suited us well most of the time.
Why don’t all the phone providers offer 4G yet? 4G is only available in major cities at the current time. So, providers are waiting for it to be set up in more cities. They are also looking to perfect the 4G technology for laptops and phones. Sprint does offer 4G, but only in select states as you can see from the Sprint 4G page. AT&T and Verizon will be offering 4G soon, but no timetable has been set. If your provider goes to 4G, you most likely have to upgrade to a newer phone to get the 4G speed. There are some dual-mode 3G/4G devices out there, such as HTC Evo. There is no tech support difficulty with 4G. It acts just like 3G does so there is no learning curve.
