4G | 5G internet

Australia’s failing NBN has highlighted the need to look elsewhere for internet coverage.

One option becoming quite popular among Australians is cellular-based internet. With 5G still in its infancy, 4G seems to be the ticket to success.

So what is 4G?

4G is the 4th Generation of mobile data technology and the name given to and connectivity service that can meet the speed and connection standards imposed by the International Telecommunication Union. 

To achieve the speeds required to meet the standards of the ITU, a technology advancement protocol was developed to forge the path to 4G. This advancement in cellular technology was named LTE.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the name given for the wireless broadband service that operates using cellular data transfer across multiple frequency channels (bands) of a carrier network.

In order to provide a service that allowed the end user to obtain the speeds required to make and receive video calls, download movies and send unlimited selfies and Tik-Toks to each other all over the world, RF engineers needed to look outside the box of conventional data transfer.

How these brilliant Engineers decided to accomplish this was by implementing a system of what is referred to as packet switching. This system allowed multiple bundles of information to be sent over many different paths in contrary to standard circuit switching which allowed faster connection times but limited the wireless connection to one transfer path. Packet switching is not a new concept and has been used for decades in the past. Its original intended use was to maintain an uninterrupted connection for voice calling as by establishing a connection over multiple paths reduces the risk of dropped calls. But this use proved to be more problematic to service providers as they no longer had a means of accurately tracking call volume. But what soon became evident was that packet switching was an extremely successful way of transmitting and receiving data. With multiple paths so send information across, more information could be sent with less congestion. 

I’m sure that by now you’re asking, what does this mean to me?

Familiarising yourself with the above info is handy as it will help gain an understanding of the most fundamental aspect of LTE. And that is: The technology will continue to evolve. There is no limit to the speeds achievable.

Technology is advancing rapidly and we, as Australians stuck in the slow lane, are ready to go fast!