Quote:
Originally Posted by MyNewSolstice
the #G is provider dependent .....If att launches a new generation for the Iphone it will be 4G but palm pre launch of new site would be 5G it is not a cohesive system. The xG means NADA
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That's EXTREMELY incorrect. "xG" standards are ratified by certain firms, in particular, the 3GPP.
A 2G technology is pretty much just a digital technology. The line is kinda blurry on this one. Voice-only GSM implementations, TDMA (GSM's predecessor), and iDEN (Nextel) all qualify, and IS-95, which is CDMA's predecessor.
A 3G technology is a technology that uses both packet and circuit-switched data, so technically 1xRTT on CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) qualifies, even though it's in line with EGPRS/EDGE on GSM (2.5G on T-Mobile/AT&T), which is how Verizon gets away with their "largest 3G network" ads, because both Sprint and Verizon's ENTIRE networks technically qualify as 3G networks, because of the definition, even though both AT&T and Sprint have larger high-speed footprints.
4G is any technology that is capable of a minimum of 100mbps, which Clearwire's WiMax network is currently not, so technically it does not qualify as a 4G network, even though WiMax is a widely accepted 4G standard.
And to whoever said theoretical speeds are never reached, you're quite right, however you can usually get about 1/3 to 1/2 of them, which means on AT&T's 7.2 mbps HSPA network people will probably average around 3.6mbps, the theoretical maximum of Sprint and Verizon's current networks.
What will play a lot more of a role than the theoretical maximum is the network capacity, and AT&T isn't looking so hot in that department at the moment. In fact, Boy Genius Report has been doing a survey lately, and I don't believe T-Mobile's results are out yet, but I would predict they'll come in with the second highest downlink speed behind Sprint. AT&T was third, Verizon fourth.
And, no, I don't work for a phone company, but I'm a cellular network infrastructure geek, and I actually started out my college career majoring in electrical engineering, hoping to be an RF (radio frequency) engineer.