China skips 3G and goes to 4G cell networks

[Allan]

Third-generation (3G) telephony is not available on the Chinese mainland yet, but subscribers in one city district can now go beyond where no one has ever gone.

The world's first fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication system was officially launched Sunday in Shanghai's Changning district after a field trial was conducted in October.

Super Speed

The home-grown 4G system provides speeds of up to 100 mbps in wireless transmission of data and images many times faster than that of current mobile technology.

The rollout of the trial, which has cost 150 million yuan (US$19.2 million), is a milestone in the development of China's 4G technologies.

"It testifies that the technology we've developed is feasible and brings us one step closer to put it into commercial use," said You Xiaohu, a leading expert involved in the program.

China initiated the B3G (Beyond 3G)/4G research project in 2001 under the label Future Technology for Universal Radio Environment, or FuTURE Project, which is included in the national high-tech development plan.

On Track

The country has set a goal of conducting field tests of the 4G system and putting it into trial commercial use between 2006 and 2010, according to the FuTURE Project.

"The Shanghai system shows that we have entered the final phase of our project," said You, also the principal of the FuTURE Project's expert panel.

The FuTURE Project involves about 10 leading domestic institutions

Source: Tech News World

[viciv]

lol. china SKIPS 3G.. that's quite insane

[[bear]]

They were having trouble with 3G so they quit and moved on.

[Kriz]

Wow, thats unreal.

[Quillz]

4G sounds pretty good.

[akaladis Veteran]

Actually, given the year that we're in, and the fact that 3G never really got popular, I think it is only logical to skip it.

I remember doing a project on 3G *many* years ago. Yes, it was promising (and the specification are still good), but its pricing was terrible and the services offered never really matched what the initial specifications promised for. I hope 4G takes a more down-to-earth approach (read as not-expensive) and offer services which make sense to people.

3G reminds me of a presentation Bill Gates had done some time ago about how Microsoft sees the average home by the end of the decade. To be honest, it felt like technology is pushing us to change our lifestyle, and not the other way around, as it should be. I can't see why my phone should be able to handle streaming audio/video or browse the Internet at speeds that exceed common broadband services, and all that for the sake of working when I'm not at work (in other words, for the sake of working 24 hours a day).

Does that make any sense, or have I grown too much too fast?

[Ferret]

Thats not the sort of technology that the UK would see in the next 50 years...

I'm struggling to get a stable 8Mbps connection at home, let alone having a 100Mbps connection on my phone !

[BryanChung]

3G has not really taken off here yet in Singapore! It is still so costly that not many really make use of the services available for 3G.

[primexx]

$1 to bet that the U.S. would never accept the technology, even if it's superior.

[Quillz]

$1 to bet that the U.S. would never accept the technology, even if it's superior.

Well, the US is just starting to upgrade to 3G now, so we probably will use 4G, but not for a long, long time.

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

Good stuff, at the way media is moving, 4G will be the thing needed by 2010.

[BryanChung]

So why is 3G so slow moving actually?

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

u guys should look up telstras nextG network in australia, china world first pffft what ever we have 3g here and weve skipped 4g

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

eh, I must be 1G where I live! no seriously, I have no idea.

[Smigit]

So why is 3G so slow moving actually?

costs costs and costs

It cost alot of money and time for companies to establish the infrastructure for it and in turn it's costing the consumers too much so very few people subscribe to it.

u guys should look up telstras nextG network in australia, china world first pffft what ever we have 3g here and weve skipped 4g

what? 3g comes before 4g...how on earth did we skip 4G when we chose to adopt 3G?

[BryanChung]

Yeah cost is the primary factor ... but at this rate, why will people even want to develop another level higher?

[primexx]

Yeah cost is the primary factor ... but at this rate, why will people even want to develop another level higher?

Because they can. That's the main motivation to MANY Chinese innovations.

[Scirwode]

Damn :blink: ! I knew 4G was coming soon but not that soon. I've research on HSDPA, HSUPA and such but I thought we were still a long way from 4G. Even if 4G did arrive, I expected Japan to be first as they always seem to be ahead of the rest of the world :blink: . Oh well, I haven't even gone 3G so 4G will probably only reach Malaysia in 2010.

Scirwode

[akaladis Veteran]

eh, I must be 1G where I live! no seriously, I have no idea.

I doubt that :p

If your operator has GSM coverage, that qualifies you for 2G. If you also get GPRS, that's the so-called '2.5G'.

Here in Greece 3G coverage is quite good actually, but why even bother, when the services offered are too damn expensive (not to mention useless)? My cell phone is 3G-capable (Sony Ericsson K800i). Let me tell you that upon its first boot, I disabled 3G networks all together. Seriously, with GSM I can call, I can text-message (a.k.a. SMS). It's just about what I'd ever ask for.

[Johnston]

on my 3g phone (k800i) does having 3g signal and enabling 3g give me better talking quality, or any other advantages such as using text etc?ive always wondered this.

[BryanChung]

Nope it doesn't. Infact, it cosumes more battery :)

[someware]

The 3G network in Australia was created by Telstra and Hutchison 3 together and it uses the WCDMA 2100mhz band. The Telstra/Three network 2100mhz only covers major cities and has been recently upgraded to the faster HSPDA so called 3.5G.

Telstra have recently released their own network, it uses WCDMA 850mhz and it's based on 3.5G (HSPDA) which is far faster than 3G. Telstra have the added advantage of being the old government owned company who own most of the telecoms infrastructure in Aus. This means that their network covers regional Australia as well.

From a performance standpoint, if you just use your phone for voice calls, you won't notice much difference, regarding range, compared to the GSM network (70km?) and even the CDMA (100km?) network it is reduced (35km?). But technology moves forward and i'm sure we'll all be using video calls day to day in a few years time when the cost comes down.

HSPDA supports up to 14.4mbit/s (soon to be 28.8mbit/s) and 3g supports up to 384kbps I believe.

One thing that I reckon is great about this technology is that you can have broadband on the move, or even when you're at home with no phone service but within range of a base station.

Edited February 1, 2007 by Z3r0