News from the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) on 4G, aka IMT-Advanced: In a recent meeting it was decided that technology has now moved sufficiently beyond enhanced 3G systems (such as UMTS HSPA, WiMAX, CDMA1xEvDo also called 'enhanced IMT-2000 systems' in ITU terms) that the selection process of suitable technologies for 4G can now begin. In a paper, the ITU describes the steps that will now follow and the time frame they see for the process:
- 2008 - beginning of 2009: Companies can submit proposal for candidate technologies. I guess 3GPP's LTE Advanced and IEEE's WiMAX 802.16m are hot candidates. Let's see who else will come up with something.
- Up to 2010: Evaluation of the proposed technologies
- Mid-2010: Decision will be made which systems will get the IMT-Advanced stamp
A further interesting note is that the new documents now published by the ITU do not specify any new technical details concerning the properties of future 4G systems. Instead, they just reference ITU-R M.1465, which has been around for some time now, which calls for data rates of 100 MBit/s while moving and 1 GBit/s while stationary.
Via LTE Watch
I find it a bit strange that LTE is well under testing now and still nobody knows if it is considered officially '4G' or not. Network vendor roadmaps show that SW/HW ready for acceptance will be ready for the beginning of 2010, but the IMT will still be debating what is 4G and what is not. I guess we will keep that '4G' icon for handsets on hold for now.. :)
Posted by: Mark | August 05, 2008 at 08:02 PM