4G network cometh

Earlier this month the O2 mobile network began a nine-month trial of the 4G network in the UK, starting in the heart of London. 1,000 users across 40 square miles of the capital - stretching from Hyde Park to the O2 in Greenwich – received the super-fast wireless signal in a trial that will allow download rates of up to 50 megabytes a second (Mbps) with expected rates of 10-15Mbps when the commercial 4G network rolls out.

The 4G network trial has been carefully designed to cover key areas of the capital, including Canary Wharf, Soho, Westminster, South Bank and Kings Cross. Hypothetically, this new network (also known as Long Term Evolution or LTE), is capable of speeds of 150Mbps – awe-inspiring when you consider that 3G, currently the fastest UK mobile network, has a download rate of just 1.5Mbps.
When referring to mobile networks, the 'G' stands for generation, with the number corresponding to the generation (i.e. 2 is second, 3 is third, 4 is fourth etc) – the higher the number, the more advanced it is to the previous one. The estimated speeds of 4G are equivalent to those of reasonably fast home broadband in the city centre but this new generation network also has other benefits.

As the quality and size of software, games, music and movies increase, one of the problems is the size of the file must also increase which means that with a standard connection, these files take longer to download. With the advent of cloud computing and the need to upload increasingly large files on the move, 3G services really can’t cope therefore 4G makes this a more feasible reality. A faster network will allow users to download these files quickly and painlessly – O2 estimates that under 4G, the average film of 500Mb will take around just a minute to download. For workers, this sort of connection somewhat relieves the irritation of a broadband dongle attached to a laptop where page load and upload times are noticeably slow.

Of course, this is not the only benefit; on a more abstract basis, such technology benefits the UK as a whole in that it creates more jobs and more investment from companies that see it as a lure to invest. This means more taxation and better services, as well as a future-proof technology industry that’s in line with the top technologically advanced nations in the world (America, of course, have had 4G for a while now). All this will benefit the average person in the long run, one way or another.

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