In short, 4G, or the Forth Generation of Cellular Communications is the next step in mobile data evolution.
The main benefits of this new whiz bang technology will be that you can do things faster, receive more media and work far harder on a compatible mobile device. Ed Richards, the top man at Ofcom said:
"4G offers much better data services and therefore all the kind of things you can get on broadband at home or in your office that you aspire to do through your smartphone or tablet computer and so forth, that is exactly what 4G services will enable"
So what's the time scale for both the UK networks and handset manufacturers to have a product in place on a system works? Well, don't rush out to buy a 4G supported smartphone just yet as by the time it will work 100%, you'll already be on your next handset upgrade. All UK networks will bid next year (2012) for the license to offer 4G which, like a decade ago with 3G, will involve crazy sums of cash. 2013 is our confident guess so sit back and enjoy your 3G speeds up until then, safe in the knowledge that they're faster than 2G and your only paying for the data used and not the time spent on the network.
Beam me up!
