Understand wireless generations as they evolve

Image courtesy of Andrew Stawarz at Flickr.com

Innovation is opening doors in a way that things seem without limits and a clear example of this is the evolution of the wireless industry. Its origins with analog based first generation service (1G) to today’s 4G, which is now truly a broadband-ready LTE network. Everything is advancing, from the technology from manufacturers to networking and software available. In just 10 years, the advancements have been amazing and it seems we can only continue to expect more advances in our wireless generations. As the bandwidth grow, so does the amount of services used by us to take advantage of the increasing connectivity we have available to us. At this rate, everyone in the world will have access to smartphones, that have the capacities to make use of the wireless generation available at the moment.

1st Generation Wireless Network (1G)

This first attempt to connect people via their mobile devices offered a basic voice service and analog-based products. It navigated at 24 kbps and was still quite slow in comparison to today’s needs and market.

2nd Generation Wireless Network (2G)

This updated version of the wireless network bumped up to 2G and this time offers voice, improved coverage and capacity, and first digital standards (GSM, CDMA). The speed also jumped up to 64 kbps. At this point it was still evolving, but at least offered access to the applications that were relevant at the moment.

3rd Generation Wireless Network (3G)

3G was designed for voice with some data like text, images and internet and it has the first mobile broadband available. The internet speed increased to 2,000 kpbs allowing users to interact seamlessly with the different apps that we all constantly used from our mobile devices. As many of you have already experiences, it can be somewhat liberating being able to do thing you would normally do on your desktop or laptop.

4th Generation Wireless Network (4G)

Finally, the current wireless network, 4G, not only has the basics but is really showing innovative technology advances. 4G will now let you use data as one of the primary ways of communicating, it will have IP-based protocols (LTE), and it will truly be a mobile broadband. This one will allow you to navigate with up to 100,000 kbps.

Image courtesy of Esther Vargas at Flickr.com

What to expect with this evolution?

The evolution will obviously find itself not only on one aspect of communication, instead you’ll find how the industry as a whole continues to grow steadily. So much, that today we use “kilobytes”, but we will soon need to start using “exabyte”, which is equivalent to 1 billion gigabytes. These kinds of advances will allow you to continuously have more access to the content and media being shared with mobile devices. Another driving factor behind this evolution are the smartphone users. They are increasing every year and of course telecommunication companies have to offer the next best thing to let this change continue. The best way to see how this industry continues to grow is by keeping its users happy. This can be achieved by enhancing network performance (19%), followed by the value of money (16%), and with approximately 10% each user will expect ongoing communication, tariff plans offered and customer support.

What’s next?

We may take today’s technological advances for granted, that is until we are seen in the position to use out-of-date devices or firmware. At this moment we can comparatively notice the mayor differences in speed, services provided and in general overall user experience. Next in line in the evolution of wireless generations is 5G. It’s already foreseen that this new and improved wireless generation will provide even more of everything.

5G is still not out in the market, but it is expected that by 2020 it will be the next generation available on most mobile devices in the major cities. South Korea, which usually gets a head start in the trials will begin in 2017, and the US in 2018. It’s already the buzz that the jump to this new generation will be quite significant and it will be a lot more than just faster mobile data. By innovating and dreaming up the new generation, they have to not only consider the needs of today but what we will need in the future of communication and mobile devices. The Internet of Thing (IoT), along with the transition from laptops to mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, will interconnect our lives more everyday. 5G is expected to reflect this and much more. Although it will be fast, with an expected speed of 10 gbps, which will easily allow you to download HD movies in up to 4 seconds. This new gen will also bring a low latency, which is basically cutting down the time between operations on your mobile device, which after studies shows that this will be groundbreaking for self-driving cars and every other device that will be uploading and downloading data due to the IoT.