4G Game Changer
The arrival of 4G is a ‘game changer’ that will revolutionise how we communicate and access information on the go – allowing people to ‘take their office’ with them anywhere. That’s the confident prediction of Mark Curtis-Wood from Nimans who says future generations will view 4G as a watershed moment.
He concedes that the impact is still to be felt, as many areas of the country have issues even with 3G, but he says in time, 4G will snowball and become ‘total utopia’ – although at the moment it’s not a ‘magic wand’.
He emphasised: “One of the biggest technology developments in recent years is 4G. This is going to be a game changer because it’s going to bring mobility into areas that it never was before like video conferencing, applications and so on. The way we sell mobile data is also changing. On the back of 4G people will want to consume more data but consume it in a different way. That’s about us selling terabytes of data to resellers and enabling them to carve it up how they want to as part of their core proposition.”
Mark continued: “It’s the start of a new era but we are still only in the first phase. The landscape out there is split into two distinct camps. There are those that see 4G as being total utopia, a whole new world of connectivity, much of which we haven’t seen yet as it hasn’t been invented. Then others are still saying 3G isn’t even there yet, let alone anything else.
“Clearly 4G isn’t accessible for everyone. Is it living up to the hype? If you live in a metropolitan area with a strong signal you are going to have a different view to someone living in a rural area. There are challenges around it. Currently iPhones for example are not compatible with all network frequencies. But for me in the future I am convinced 4G will be a game changer. When most people gain access to mobility solutions at competitive pricing it opens up the landscape to be able to truly take your office on the move. Everything will start to snowball. 4G makes video conferencing and soft applications on the move a lot more realistic.
“However it’s not a magic wand. As we’ve seen before when 2G got rolled out and 3G. It’s fuelled by early adopters but there are inevitable challenges and issues. Availability, bandwidths and commercial price points to name a few. Over time we will go through the same evolution path as we did before. However there’s a big difference this time. In the past it was the network driving the technology but in the future the technology will drive the network. As soon as 4G gets opened up the technology is already sat there waiting for this to happen. The networks will have to work hard to keep up and ensure everything functions as fast as possible otherwise people will get frustrated very quickly. ”