4G explained

I bet we alll have heard of safaricom launching its 4G services in the 4th quater of this year. Most of us are yet to expirience the full power of 3G, so what exactly is this 4G?
4G is the next generation of mobile network. It’ll bring faster, more reliable data connections for mobile phones and laptops, as well as more flexible mobile entertainment and more advanced messaging. Find out how 4G will take over your mobile life, and make the internet more powerful than ever on portable devices.

The 30-second brief

4G takes over where 3G technology leaves off, packing more data into the same airspace, otherwise known as radio spectrum. It does so by sending all communications, regardless of whether they’re phone calls, internet data or multimedia messages, using Internet Protocol, or IP.
That's the same system your computer uses to hop online, and zap information around at high speed, and means your 4G phone will make more efficient use of the network, as well as squeezing in more features.
Video chats with multiple participants, phone calls that cost the same whether they’re to the other side of the world, or the other side of the street, and on-demand TV, delivered in high definition to your handset. All that’s possible with 4G, and it’s coming in the next year or two.

Not to be confused with.... HSDPA

3G networks use a system called High Speed Downlink Packet Access to increase download speeds, and are fast enough to get your mobile online for standard web surfing, but try doing anything really intense, like streaming high quality video, and you’ll soon notice its limitations. HSDPA tops out at 14 megabits per second but generally most users enjoy around 2.5 Mbps. 4G networks begin at 15 megabits per second, and can run up to twice that in ideal conditions.
To put that in perspective, a 4G network will let you download a DVD-quality movie in around five minutes flat. It’ll also mean your phone or mobile dongle can do more things at once. Downloading maps while you’re on a phone call, or loading large e-mail attachments while you listen to streamed internet radio.

So why isn't everyone switching to 4G?

Making the switch to 4G means mobile networks have to upgrade their base stations and antennas. Luckily, the specification for 4G phones caters for the hand-over process by demanding that all 4G devices also work with 3G and 2G networks.
That means that, while you’ll get vastly improved performance with a 4G device while it’s within range of a 4G network, it’ll keep working even when you wander outside the 4G zone, and have to rely on older 3G signals.

The world will be a better place with 4G because...

Anticipation is high even though a launch date for 4G is still to be confirmed. When it finally comes you’ll spend less time waiting for your phone to load web pages, your mobile broadband dongle really will be as quick as your home broadband and with more data packed into the same space, you’ll finally be able to multitask properly on the move. All this, and you’ll save money by making calls through the internet, rather than the mobile phone network, since 4G technology effectively makes them the same thing.

I hope Safaricom is going to improve on its data plann or else this is also going to be another waste or a quicker way to snatch your cash in the name of data bundles nkt.