The Pros And Cons Of 4G

Today’s world is one where smartphones can be found in the pockets of nearly everybody that you may commonly encounter on the street, ranging from the average blue-collar worker to AARP cardholders, even children have been spotted typing furiously away at their screens. How is it possible to maintain high download speeds and smooth functioning when seemingly everyone is overloading the board all at once? The answer lies in technological advances in wireless communication. Researchers and developers have painstakingly spent hours trying to perfect their systems and provide a service that far exceeds the often-simplistic needs of their users. Nowadays one can order a pizza, check their bank balance and even showcase their report all from the palm of their hand.
3G, as one may assume, is the third generation of wireless technology for devices. The initial two mobile technologies were analog cell phones (1G) and digital phones (2G). 3G protocols required a user to be able to utilize data and voice simultaneously, providing transmission speeds of 200 kilobytes3. The latest breakthrough in wireless technology is 4G, which increases a users transmission capacity greatly, introducing functions such as video streaming, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) and faster transmission of Internet applications among the upgrades over the previous refresh. It has since been adopted as the preferred method of cellular phone communications service due to the theory that 4G wireless is anywhere from four to ten times faster than a comparable 3G network.
Comparatively, the views on 3G and 4G networks are widespread largely depending on carrier choice and location. Where both are available, many subscribers view the latter as more reliable however a ...

... middle of paper ...

...s per second for stationary users within a kilometers range of the carrier tower.
As with most innovations that come to fruition, there is a healthy level of competition for subscription to a particular carrier. Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T alike all attempt to entice customers through multiple forms of media, boasting the fastest speeds available on the sleekest phones. This clash amongst carriers prods consumers to actually do a bit of research to see exactly how much bang they are getting for their buck.

One can attribute Verizon’s ability to somewhat blanket the 4G market to its increased reliability and consistency throughout the cities it caters to nationwide. As of 2013, Mark Sullivan asserts “Verizon has brought its LTE service within reach of 287 million people, and AT&T has made LTE available to 200 million people, according to the companies.”4