I’m not sure how much attention people in general actually pay to some of the terms those of us in the wireless industry use.  Let’s try this one for starters: 3G.  I’m guessing some of you probably have heard this and have a decent idea what it means, at least generally.  This knowledge is probably based on the likes of the new 3G iPhone.  3G is basically a general term used to refer to a set of faster wireless network technologies and protocols that have been in the market for the last 2-3 years.  If you have a cell phone with Sprint or Verizon, the incarnation you might be familiar with is EVDO or DO.  If you use AT&T, you may have heard the term HSPA.  I’ll spare you what the acronyms means, but in a nutshell the practical meaning of 3G is that each of us can get faster network access to our wireless devices.

For instance, if you have a 3G iPhone, you’re web pages will download faster (actually quite a bit faster), than if you have the original iPhone.  For those of you who travel like me, you might have an Air Card for your PC that lets you tap into one of the existing 3G networks.  It’s not as fast as your cable modem at home, but it’s way faster than previous wireless modems, and light years ahead of your 56K modem at home if you’re still stuck with that.

This year at CTIA many booths, and some of the speakers, featured the next generation of wireless network technologies: 4G.  4G, like 3G, comes in a couple of primary flavors.  You will begin to hear the terms WiMAX and LTE more and more over the next 2-3 years.  4G is the more generic term, and WiMAX and LTE are specific technology implementations.  Big deal, so what?  What does it mean to you, you ask?  The answer is simple: speed!

Let me try and paint a picture for you here.  If you currently have a cable modem at your home or place of work, you are probably experiencing on average somewhere around 4Mbit.  That means your computer is receiving 4 million bits each second from the network.  I average around this at my house, and I find this is fairly typical, though I do have friends that average closer to 7Mbit.  My point here is not to give you a specific speed, but to give you a frame of reference.  Now step forward with me into the world of 4G.  Imagine getting network access from your 4G iPhone (if it existed), or your 4G enabled laptop at something closer to 15Mbit to 20Mbit.  That’s somewhere around 4 or 5 times what you are getting in your home today, and it is what one presenter experienced in Portland recently when they did a 4G speed test.  That’s faster than a scalded dog, as we say where I’m from.

Think about it.  Speed like that really changes things.  From a personal perspective you could be riding down the road while your spouse is driving and watch a streaming TV show from Hulu.  You could even watch your favorite sport live through a number of on-line sites, all without jitter or delays.  From a business perspective that type of speed changes things dramatically.  Got a huge spreadsheet you need to review, or a large presentation you are updating?  No problem.  You’ve got speed that is as good or better than most of us experience in our offices.  Once that happens, we really will be able to do things any time, any place, anywhere.