What are the future concepts of EDGE, 3G and 4G?

We give you the lowdown on what to expect from all the new wireless technologies that are emerging.

The mobile industry is evolving at a speed that may make it hard for many players to stay ahead. In this article, we'll try to give some insights into what consumers can expect from it all.

EDGE

EDGE will be around for many years ahead, mainly as a complementary solution for WCDMA and HSDPA networks. EDGE currently works pretty well for e-mail and messaging applications, but if millions of people where to stream videos via EDGE, serious speed issues would be appearing.

EDGE Evolution, providing speeds of up to 1 Mbit/s, is expected to be rolled out by 2009. Hopefully, the mobile world has then come to a point where EDGE Evolution will not be a main provider of data transfers, but rather a fallback solution.

3G

EV-DO and WCDMA networks have been around for a while, but delivering data speeds up to 1-2 Mbit/s, none of these technologies are sustainable. The next evolutionary step for EV-DO is a 4G technology called Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). As for WCDMA networks, the next evolutionary step are still within the 3G range, namely HSDPA networks. HSDPA should be considered as a 3.5G technology.

Needless to say, carriers that have chosen to walk down the EV-DO path now face a serious issue, as UMB is not ready to be rolled out. However, to the rescue comes another 3.5G technology (measured in speed), called WiMAX.

In the years ahead, HSDPA and WiMAX networks will go head to head, providing theoretical data speeds of up to 7 and 10 Mbit/s, respectively. HSDPA networks will likely offer the best solution from a technological perspective, but WiMAX may on the other hand offer the best subscription solution. Being backed up by most computer manufacturers, a user may end up needing only one broadband subscription for its WiMAX enabled computer and smartphone. Sprint will start building a WiMAX network next year, called Xohm, aiming to have become a nationwide network by 2011.

As a concept, we think both HSDPA and WiMAX networks will bring the mobile world closer to actually delivering a mobile Internet that the masses will want to use. Mainly because they'll allow users to access all the Internet services they're accessing from their computers today, anytime, anywhere.

4G

Despite being at least 7-10 years away from full coverage, we'll see initial deployments of 4G networks in 2-3 years from now. As mentioned above, the next evolutionary step for EV-DO networks are UMB. The next evolutionary step for HSDPA networks currently goes under the name of Long Term Evolution (LTE), and will be an improvement of UMTS 3G technology. Measured in theoretical data speeds at the time being, UMB is superior in that it offers up to 275 Mbit/s as opposed to LTE's 100 Mbit/s. Whether both UMB and LTE networks will be rolled out, is yet unknown. Currently, it looks like LTE networks will become the leading standard.

As a concept, both UMB and LTE networks will be able to provide wireless streaming of HDTV. Other services could eventually include futuristic scenarios such as personal health monitoring as proposed by IBM and University of Florida recently, which could require the excellent network quality provided by UMB and LTE.

Given today's costs related to using 3G technologies, it'll be interesting to see what it'll cost to use 4G technology. Not to mention the fact that most companies are in no way close to go break-even on their current 3G projects, but may still be forced to move on to 4G technology. As a result of all this, we'll most likely see new partnerships and business models in the future, which will hopefully also help keeping the consumer costs at an acceptable level.