Where would we be without acronyms? These three alone represent game-changing developments. Bob Emmerson reports and throws in the Cloud for good measure.
GAME CHANGERS: 4G/LTE; DIY M2M; BYOD T
he first acronym, which comes from the cellular communications community, could have been created in order to spread confusion. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution: it’s a goal that will deliver high data rates and other communications goodies. LTE networks are being rolled out but they are not 4G, although that is the way they and LTEcompliant devices are being marketed. LTE is really 3.9G and admittedly that isn’t going to grab your attention. Real 4G networks come with LTE Advanced. OK. Does it matter and why is it a game-changing development? It matters because the industry has a history of being economical with the truth and this is the latest example. Did 3G deliver a 2Mbps data rate? Did it deliver CD-quality 8 Industry Europe
sound? No on both counts, which means that I am somewhat skeptical about the promised 4G functionality. But it is a game changer because the new networks are all-IP and they employ a new core that is very efficient. When voice is packetised, which it is on wireline networks, you can do amazing things. Skype calls are either free or cheap and you can do chat, conferencing (including video), messaging, and leave voice mail. The functionality comes from the fact that packetised voice is just another data type to a computer and it can be processed in any way that makes marketing sense. For example, a map display on your shiny new smartphone could flag to the location of colleagues and buddies. Click on the relevant icon and a call is initiated. We
can expect to see zillions of so-called Mashup apps coming to the market. You can do Skype on 3G networks, but call quality will be high-definition on 4G and we can expect devices to be preloaded with this app, so you can set it to be the default service. It’s going to be very hard for operators to compete with Skype and the other OTT (over the top) players. But will subscribers care? No, they won’t.
DIY M2M: a double whammy M2M connects devices, systems and people and turns data based on physical parameters into real-time, actionable information. This communications sector has been amazingly successful, despite the sad state of the econ-
