Introduction
Nokia got it right when they thought up their slogan “Connecting People” The fast paced world that we live in now absolutely requires instant and immediate communication at all times and all places, be it at work, the house or even on the go. We take for granted how we have been facilatated by the communication industry, believing everything just came to be. Its taken years and a lot of hard work to come to the point we are at now
Mobile Communication
Communication has been around since the time of the caveman. Its not communication that has evolved but the form that has evolved. Back in the beginning we had things like drum beats and smoke signals, which then advaced to morse code and with a lot of things in between we were sweeped off by mobile communication.
The era took the world like a whirlwind and still continues to amaze at incredible speed.Though the system is almost a years old, their actual emergence was not felt until until the early 1970’s when the first 1G phones, which used analouge circuit-switched technology, (History of Mobile Phones) hit the streets on a trial run. The official launch off these phones took place in Japan in 1979 followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.
The 1990’s brought with it the 2G phones which made the use of digital technology and introduced features such as SMS and Called ID. Next in line were the 2.5G phones which were more technologically advanced and was seen as the first step towards 3G phones as people were demanding better data sevices and access to the internet. (History of Mobile Phones)
3G phones were first introduced at the turn of the century but did not become highly employed util 2007. According to a report by Strategy Analytics, 3G technolgy will take the world in a wave by 2014. There won’t be any electronic device that won’t be making use of it. From laptops to gaming consoles to digital cameras will all have 3G on them. 3G technology is already being employed widely by smartphones such as the iPhone and Android (Remarkable 3G and 4G devices to become reality by 2014) allowing fast paced access to the internet and other features such as TV streaming, multimedia, videoconferencing, web browsing, e-mail, paging, fax, and navigational maps.
Now that 3G has made its mark its time to move onto bigger and better things. The next step is 4G technology which probably would have been inroduced by now had 3G mad its mark sooner. That doesn’t mean that work on 4G hasn’t started yet. Its already on the go with many answers already found. Many companies have redirected and are working their research and development departments to develop more quickly. It is believed to be more reliable as will enable data to ransfer more quickly than it does right now since its high uplink rate will be up to 200Mbps.
The road from 3G to 4G
The move has begun, some companies have started spending a lot on research and development in this area to improvise communication for their customers.one of these being Verizon Wireles who is ready to lauch its long-term evolution (LTE) this year whereas AT&T have decided to hold back and wait till 2011. Meanwhile they’ll be upgrading their existing 3g technology. (3G or 4G? Parsing the economics of mobile broadband), Why the difference though? Wouldn’t it be more profitable for everyone to jump on the 4G bandwagon as it’s the next step up the ladder. Maybe so, but theres no hard and fast rule to when on should bring it into their system. Different companies have different priorities and will begin their next levels accordingly. Some say that they don’t provide to areas where there’s a demand for this change. The consumers are happy with what they are getting especially in the rural areas while others think moving from one to the other will be more fruitful to their objectives in the long run. It all depends on the way things are perceived hence the difference in thoughts and approaches. It is believed though that by the year 2014 the percentage share should increase to around 25-30% as compared to the current 7%.
Conclusion
As we all know change is constantly taking place and its maybe even inevitable in the world that we now live in. The world we live in has wants and demands that change from one to another within seconds or it would probably be more appropriate to say within a heartbeat. There’s nothing that can satisfy us for too long and to find the right thing we go through many others.Our choices and tastes are quite hard to keep up with but hats off to the telecommunication industry for doing so. They not only cater to our needs but to a whole spectrum of needs w hich are as different as green cheese is from the moon.
References
Institue of Electrical and Electronics Engineers of Macau/www.ieeemacau.org/ History of Mobile Phone. 2009. Web.
Mobile Mentalism/www.mobilmentalism.com/Remarkable 3G and 4G devices to become reality by 2014. Web.
TelephonyOnline/www.telephonyonline.com/Kevin Fitchard. (2009). 3G or 4G? Parsing the economics of mobile broadband. Web.