The 4G Dream

T he promise of exciting applications on light weight and easy to carry
devices continues to evolve. Mobile phones, PDAs or any other digital
communication device are all headed for major evolution in the next few years.
Paying bills, reminder services, watching television images, teleconferencing,
music playbacks, games, traffic jam updates, digital photography, navigation,
and many more such applications are on the anvil. In fact, the growth of
wireless data applications is more rapid than the core infrastructure needed to
support them. Most of the future applications are data driven and not voice
driven-and many of them have great revenue applications. Services like gaming,
video, ring tones, and music downloads will be worth Euro 8 billion in Western
Europe by 2008, says IDC.

Shyam malhotra editor-in-chief VOICE&DATA

The limitation for development and widespread deployment of such applications
is and will continue to be bandwidth. Quite simply, the wireless information
highways are inadequate for the applications rush. No wonder then that the
telecom world is doing some future gazing and betting on 4G information
networks. To be doing that, even as the 3G networks and devices have failed to
deliver, needs a leap of faith. And that is what many are doing. The promise is
alluring to say the least. A 4G network promise speeds of up to 100 Mbps in
cellphone networks and up to 1 Gbps in local Wi-Fi networks. And, therefore, has
the capacity to support interactive multimedia, voice, streaming video,
Internet, and other broadband services. They will also allow higher speeds,
higher capacity, and lower costs per transmitted bit. They will enable seamless
networking of multiple protocols and air interfaces, since IP will be compatible
with Bluetooth, WCDMA, etc. Some of the advantages expected from 4G deployments
are:

• Very high data rates: Speed will be more than 50 times that of 3G
• Enhanced GPS services: A 4G version of GPS technology would enable people
  to be connected anywhere in the world
• Media-rich apps: Media-rich content that would flow seamlessly between
  devices
• Sophisticated navigational aids: These will allow remote databases
  containing graphical representation of streets, buildings and physical
  characteristics of large metros to be accessed while you are in a moving
  vehicle

And the primary drivers of these applications will be cost,
speed, flexibility, and universal access. Many of these applications will cause
major upheavals in the ways business and commerce works. With so much of promise
and companies like Flarion, ArrayComm, IP Wireless, Navini, and Nortel Networks
are testing or have tested their 4G technologies with potential operators in
South Korea. As early as 2001, Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Siemens
formed the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) to explore 4G. This forum
forecasts the deployment of 4G in Europe by 2011, though some forecasters see
2006 as the year when some deployment may be possible. Countries like China and
Japan are jointly planning to test a fourth-generation (4G) mobile phone capable
of data communication at speeds comparable to fiber-optic cables. The two
countries will experiment with sending and receiving Internet data via mobile
phones at speeds of up to 100 Mbps, tremendously faster than the 3G phones with
speeds of 2.4 Mbps. The networks and devices in use at the moment are much
slower than even this. South Korea is looking at developing a home grown 4G
network technology and complete it by the end of this year itself.

Though many initiatives are being undertaken, the unification
of standards and the commercial applications are still a bit distant. In fact,
getting operators and device vendors to adapt to new standards is the big if.
Third-generation (3G) cell phones could not make waves in the world economy.
Only about one percent of the world's more than a billion subscribers are
using 3G handsets. The services that they are getting seem to be chunky and
bug-ridden. Obviously, the 4G road is tough. The great rewards however make it
impossible to ignore. Not to be left behind, India has also announced its
intentions of joining the race to become a 4G pioneer. IT and telecommunications
minister, Dayanidhi Maran, plans to enable India bypass 3G and go ahead to 4G.
According to Maran, 3G has not lived up to its promise and is not
cost-effective. A National Center of Excellence will be set up in India to
research 4G applications. India already has an advantage in terms of its large
market and technical expertise.

On the flip side, there is so much to be done with existing
technologies that 4G networks can appear to be the stuff of unrealistic dreams.
Nevertheless, it is good that the country is now confident enough and dreaming
about the

future rather than playing the catch-up game.

Shyam malhotra
editor-in-chief VOICE&DATA