The United Nations’ International Telcommunication Union (ITU), the guys behind the 2G – 4G standards, approved the final specs for the IMT-Advanced wireless broadband technology just last week. Here is where it gets interesting though. The new standard would allow for average data speeds of 100Mbps download speed while driving and a whopping 1Gbps while stationary. Kinda makes LTE see like dial up now doesn’t it.
Sweden is the first to adopt this capability out the gates. They already have the technology in place that is needed to implement the LTE-Andvanced basic requirements. They have actually been testing these 1Gbps speed possibilities since last summer. Checking out the video below, you can see they hit 979Mbps when the Ericcson van was stationary.
IMT-Advanced marks a huge leap forward in state-of-the-art technologies, which will make the present day smart phone feel like an old dial up Internet connection. Access to the Internet, streaming videos and data transfers anytime, anywhere will be better than most desktop connections today…
IMT-Advanced would be like putting a fibre optic broadband connection on your mobile phone, making your phone at least 100 times faster than today’s 3G smart phones. But it’s not only about speed; it’s about efficiency. IMT-Advanced will use radio-frequency spectrum much more efficiently making higher data transfers possible on lesser bandwidth. This will enable mobile networks to face the dramatic increase in data traffic that is expected in the coming years.
I guess this is where 5G will start to stem from. The technology is there, but we don’t expect to see Verizon or AT&T dropping the bomb on it for at least another 3 to 5 years. This would sure make streaming HDTV and HD movies a breeze. I could only imagine how fast our caps would be hit and how much a month they would want to charge.
Source: ITU via Phonearena
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Asking “how fast is too fast” is dumb. There is no too fast. Who knows what kind of services are on the way that will chew through bandwidth like there’s no tomorrow. Or what if you could download a song or movie 10 or 100 times faster than now… it could finish and turn off that radio on the phone, thus saving battery.
But there is no too fast. And talking about it is very short-sighted.
Short sighted? Maybe a little, but I don’t think it is an invalid question. The idea behind the whole thing is providing better speeds and reducing the strain on a network. This work easily help customer restraints and might even remove the need for data caps on plans all together. I am sure the price would increase drastically of course. I just think it’s crazy that they are working with mobile technology that is faster than what my ISP can provide in my city. Instant HD movie downloads or streams would be phenominal.
None of that would do much good if sops and pipa go through though here in the states.
I mostly agree with this opinion. I’ve used plenty of 4G phones and a 10 megabit connection is fast enough to do anything you might want to do on a cell phone. Things happen more-or-less instantly. The only current use that may demand more bandwidth is if you use a phone’s WiFi hotspot and several people are connected. Sharing 10 megabits over 5 people is still a decent connection, but it’s not going to impress most people.