News articles are supposed to be informative, not confusing. So, why is it then that when we read something in the news we end up more perplexed than when we were initially? One possible answer is that a lot of news articles, particularly technological ones, are made with the assumption that the reader is up to date with what's going on. They aren't explaining something new as much as they are adding information to something they think readers already know; but there are others who are just trying grasp basic concepts before developing a deeper understanding of a topic at hand. This particular post has those people in mind. We can't freely assume that everyone reading this site is up to date on all of the wireless industry jargon present in conversation of
4G WiMAX. So we're taking this opportunity to present a primer on WiMax lingo. If you're already apprised of the ins-and-outs of the business and just need a refresher course, you might want to read through this brief guide:
4G refers to fourth generation wireless standards. For all intents and purposes, when it is mentioned it is typically regarding a standard of speed, which has a peak rate of 100 Mbps for mobile users and 1 Gbps for stationary users. That means for a company to have 4G speeds they need to have passed a test where their Technology peaked at those speeds.
3G, which is third generation, is also a speed standard, but of a much lower caliber. Generally speaking, though, it's really a term for phones that can provide speech and data services simultaneously. Short story: you can talk on the phone and receive e-mails without your phone having a conniption. Most smart phones are 3G.
2G, second generation, is what everyone else has. 2G cell phones send radio signals digitally.
1G is, technologically speaking, arcane. Back in the 1980s, these first generation wireless phones sent radio signals that were analog. If you see 1G mentioned in anything you're reading, unless it's discussing speeds historically, check out the date it was published.
3GPP which stands for 3rd Generation Partnership Project is NOT a speed or standard of any sort, but rather a group of telecommunications associations that assess and standardize technologies that are released.
IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which, similarly to 3GPP, standardizes technologies
WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, and it's a standard of technology given approval by IEEE. Their standards run in the 802.16 families and the breakdown for that is purely physics and beyond the scope of this article. The version 802.16m is the one that would comply with the 4G standards of speed.
LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and like WiMAX, it's also a standard of technology but given approval by 3GPP. LTE Advanced is the standard currently in the process of being approved of as 4G.
So, to summarize: 3G and 4G are speeds. 3GPP and IEEE are associations that standardize technologies. WiMAX and LTE are different stands of technology that aim to do the same thing, but are standardized by two different associations. There are technological differences between the two, too, that may ultimately be further explained in a future article.