January 2, 2012
By Tom Manners

Like many rising technologies, the development of mobile networks is prone to spurts of rapid growth. During the relatively short timeframe in which wireless connectivity has been able to truly influence global communication (think a decade or so), we have seen mobile standards evolve, GSM and EDGE, 3G, and then towards HSPA and HSPA+ data networks, which is now an accepted norm in developed South Africa.

Recently, we have begun to hear the terms ‘4G’ and ‘LTE’ in many different places, but what do they actually mean? Branded by many as the next evolution in mobile data technology, LTE (or 3GPP), offers a number of new benefits one would expect from the ‘next generation network’. Chief among these however, is speed – and lots of it.

So, what’s it all about and when can we expect to start using it? As is often the case, the best place to start when investigating something new is with a definition:

LTE, short for Long Term Evolution, is considered by many to be the obvious successor to the current generation of UMTS 3G technology, which is based upon WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSPA. LTE is not a replacement for UMTS in the way that UMTS was a replacement for GSM, but rather an update to the UMTS technology that will enable it to provide significantly faster data rates for both uploading and downloading. – MobileBurn

Put more simply, LTE is the next standard for wireless communication of high speed data for mobile phones. It’s not a brand new technology – instead it is based on the UMTS/HSPA 3G networks used today while offering a more refined modulation technique. This in turn delivers significantly higher data speeds.

How high you ask?

Well, at present South African mobile operator’s offer 3G packages which cater to connection capacities of roughly 20Mbps – 25Mbps. Although there are exceptions able to punch above their weight, this is the widely accepted norm for data. While these are the figures listed as the capacity, we are all aware that the actual speeds received are usually much slower than these figures, due to a lot of different factors.

Most of our cellular providers have said they are hard at work on LTE networks which offer line speeds of 150MB upwards – that’s roughly 6 to 8 times faster than today’s premium packages.

Although these are not yet available to the average consumer, most industry analysts expect LTE to be a reality in the near future. This means that soon, we can realistically expect to benefit from mobile connectivity the likes of which we have never experienced.