4G. It’s everywhere. It’s on the tech sites you read. It’s on the televisions you watch. It’s plastered in advertisements all over the city streets you walk. It was probably in the sandwich you ate for lunch. Cellular carriers around the world are betting the bank on 4G — be it LTE, WiMAX or the newly knighted HSPA+ — and 4G-enabled gear is already starting to flood the market despite the lack of nationwide coverage.

Sprint was first to market with 4G here in the U.S. since HSPA+ was still just 3G at the time, and the carrier now has several 4G smartphones and 4G modems available for sale. Verizon Wireless is about to launch its first 4G phone, the highly anticipated HTC ThunderBolt, and AT&T will begin the process of replacing its HSPA+ 4G network with an LTE 4G network later this year. Even smaller carriers like MetroPCS are getting in on the action. In fact, MetroPCS became the first U.S. carrier to launch an LTE phone last year when it released the Samsung Craft.

Not long ago, 4G was a myth in terms of available technology. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined 4G as cellular service that provides peak download speeds of approximately 100Mbps in high-mobility environments (cell phones) and peak download speeds of approximately 1Gbps in low-mobility environments. LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ don’t even come close to fitting that definition. This is no longer the case, however. Carriers are spending billions of dollars on these next-generation technologies and millions more advertising them. And so, not surprisingly, the ITU recently shifted its position and amended its definition of 4G to include current technologies. That worked out nicely.

Semantics aside, 4G services like LTE and WiMAX are where cellular technology is headed and eventually we’ll all embrace these new networks. We know 4G is a big deal to carriers because they’re spending bucket loads of money on these technologies, but all the hype right now surrounds speed. Speed? T-Mobile’s HSPA+ is often faster than these newer 4G technologies, as we recently saw in a recent nationwide speed test. So, does 4G really matter? Cut through all the marketing, advertising, speed tests and hype, and the answer is still yes — but perhaps not solely for the reason you think.

4G networks based on LTE and WiMAX will play an important role in empowering the future of the wireless industry. Yes, they have the potential to afford speeds that exceed the limitations of older cellular technologies like CDMA, EDGE, EV-DO and HSPA, but some might consider that a benefit of lesser importance than the capability these networks have to accommodate more traffic. Just ask AT&T, which has been taking hits in mind share ever since the mass of iPhone users began crippling its data network. Of course Apple’s inexperience with building cell phones continues to play a large role in AT&T’s current situation, but that’s another article entirely.

Without getting overly technical, new 4G networks based on LTE and WiMAX make use of technologies that will better accommodate the sharp rise in cell phone usage we’re currently seeing the the U.S. and other markets. The use of technologies like Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology result in a more efficient use of spectrum, better signal coverage and — most importantly, perhaps — more capacity.

Think of your cellular connection as a highway. Older 3G technologies might have two or three lanes in each direction. When traffic is light, the highway is more than suitable to get you from A to B quickly, efficiently and painlessly. Problems arise as rush hour approaches, however, and it could now take hours to get to the same destination that would take just 20 minutes in light traffic.

Now, think of LTE and WiMAX as a highway that offers 10 lanes in each direction. It might have the same 65 MPH speed limit as the narrower highway, but traffic will keep moving along just fine when rush hour rolls around.

It’s far more difficult to convey this benefit in advertising, and users naturally consider speed to be of great importance — especially after being conditioned by wireline broadband services and the ISPs that provide them. As such, speed will continue to be at the forefront of all marketing messages carriers deliver to the public surrounding 4G. But rest assured, carriers need the added capacity afforded by LTE and WiMAX networks if they are to survive. Moreover, developers need the capacity so they can continue innovating, and subscribers need it so they can use all these great new services without experiencing 10 car pile-ups on a regular basis.

We’re now in the midst of rush hour and 3G highways are far too narrow to handle the congestion.

Today at CES, Lexar introduced its 32GB Class 10 microSD card designed for mobile devices. The new storage card is capable of reading data at 20MB per second and writing data at 10MB per second; which is double the write speed of the current batch of Class 4 cards (4MB per second).

“We’ve seen a steady rise in the sophistication of smart and mobile phones, and usage trends show a convergence between communication and entertainment,” said Jim Chan, product manager at Lexar Media. “Today’s users rely on their mobile devices, beyond talk and email, for capturing live moments and downloading their favorite content – whether it’s photos, music, or HD video – and they want the flexibility to store and share them on demand.”

The new card is available today on Amazon.com for $149.99. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Lexar Media Introduces the 32GB Class 10 High-Speed Mobile microSDHC Card for Mobile Phones

Las Vegas, NV, January 5, 2011 – Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today introduced the 32GB Class 10 Lexar® High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card. The 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card guarantees a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB per second and a read speed up to 20MB per second¹, allowing users to quickly load files onto the card and transfer them between mobile phone and computer, and maximize their on-the-go mobile lifestyles. The 32GB Lexar High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card is part of a performance kit that includes a USB reader and mediamove^TM for Lexar Media sideload software for easy and quick file management. For additional information about the 32GB Lexar High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card, visitwww.lexar.com.

“We’ve seen a steady rise in the sophistication of smart and mobile phones, and usage trends show a convergence between communication and entertainment,” said Jim Chan, product marketing manager, Lexar Media. “Today’s users rely on their mobile devices, beyond talk and email, for capturing live moments and downloading their favorite content – whether it’s photos, music, or HD video – and they want the flexibility to store and share them on demand. It is with this knowledge that we’ve developed this convenient, all-in-one solution to enable users to not only capture moments and download content, but also to move these to a computer or social media sites easily.”

Multimedia file storage, including photos, music, videos, is the primary reason people purchase memory cards for their phones². The 32GB Lexar High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card enables users to not only store more multimedia files, but to also move large amounts of mobile content more quickly with its performance of Class 10. The card also includes pre-loaded software to allow users to manage their stored images and videos, sync content with their PC or Mac, and share them on the most popular social websites.

As a division of Micron Technology, Inc., Lexar Media is backed by Micron’s industry-leading memory technology, providing consumers with reliable, high-quality, award-winning products. Additionally, Lexar products are tested in the Lexar Quality Labs where all product designs undergo extensive testing to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability with more than 800 intended digital devices.

The 32GB Lexar High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card includes a ten-year limited warranty and the USB reader includes a one-year limited warranty.  The 32GB Lexar High-Speed Mobile microSDHC card is available now at Amazon.com and Lexar.com, with a MSRP of $149.99.

According to Dick Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless is pushing up the timetable for its LTE rollout, aiming now for a late Q4 2009 deployment. Considering that Lynch said, “We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the U.S. probably this time next year,” we can ascertain the initial deployment will be limited in scope and that the date is not set in stone. Nonetheless, such an aggressive timetable suggests that Verizon is trying to get a jump on their US competition and is keeping up with the likes of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo who recently announced that it expects to have LTE commercially available in 2010. Lynch also revealed that femtocell technology will be an important part of LTE deployment. Femtocells will be available for subscribers and will be used to increase the signal strength and range indoors. The LTE femtocells may also include integrated WiFi so non-cellular, WiFi-enabled devices can connect to the LTE network as well. With all this talk of LTE, femtocells, and a target launch of 2009, are you getting excited yet for this new 4G technology? We sure are.

Read

In a bid to compete with Verizon’s FIOS service, Comcast has just announced that it will begin the roll out of their DOCSIS 3.0 network starting with residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including the Boston Metropolitan region and Southern New Hampshire. Also included in the roll out are areas of Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the Twin Cities where the wide-band service was launched earlier this year. Hey New Englanders, stop crying about the Bosox and go check your modem logs as it has reportedly gone live in some locations! Comcast has also introduced two new speed tiers for their high-speed service and doubled the speeds for current customers at no extra charge. The speeds and pricing of Comcast’s residential plans are now as follows:

• Extreme 50 : offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at $139.95/month. (new)
• Ultra : offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at $62.95/month. (new)
• Performance Plus : offering download speeds to up to 16 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps of upload speed at $52.95/month. (existing plan that was upgraded)
• Performance : offering download speeds to up to 12 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps of upload speed at $42.95/month. (existing plan that was upgraded)

Businesses will be eligible for similar wide-band plans (Deluxe 50/10 Mbps for $189.95/month and 22/5 Mbps for $99.95/month) and complimentary speed increases on existing plans as well. Comcast expects to expand the service to 10 major markets and nearly 10 million homes and businesses over the next several months. With faster speeds now available, we wonder what will happen to Comcast’s 250GB bandwidth cap and new network throttling plan. The press release says “With Extreme 50, Comcast customers, for example, will be able to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes”. Hmm, one HD movie a day for month will use up about 180GB of the 250GB allotment. What about the online games, web browsing, you tube video watching, etc that also uses up some of the precious 250GB? Looks like there may be a lot more customers pushing that 250GB limit. Special honors will go to the first BGR reader to get an overlimit warning from Comcast. We’re rooting for you!

[via DSL Reports]

Read