Advertised on TV, amongst videos for Nissans flying over snowy half-pipes, or an attractive Toyota lady exhorting us to 'let's go places', companies offering TV-plus-internet-plus-phone are talking "4G LTE". There must be many experts who know what "4G LTE" means, but the people I asked, both young and old, didn't. Actually, I didn't even find one who knew. I'm not a computer-trained person, so, for what it's worth, here's what one may find on the internet.
"G" stands for Generation. In 1980 there was 1G, then about 10 years later, 2G, 10 years after that 3G, and finally now 4G. The LT apparently stands for Long Term, implying that the engineers may finally be giving us a break for a little more than 10 years before we have to re-equip. E stands for Evolution, and everything evolves, of course -- bacteria, plants, us.
Historically, that first generation, 1G, was the method used in regular old analog telephone communication, a la Graham Bell.
After the 1980s, telephones became digital, with everything coded into ones and zeros, and the methods used were then described as "2G". It was found that cables -- specifically coaxial cables, which are still just 2 wires but with the central wire insulated from the outer concentric conducting sheath, could carry much more information, and shielded from interference. Also, photographs were then becoming digitized and so we could begin transmitting pictures down wires as well as conversations and music. One (colored) picture element, or pixel, needed roughly two dozen bits.
However, when we are told that LTE stands for "Long Term Evolution", I'm still mystified. After all, if it's there for the long-term, what actual developments have made that so?
Every body of knowledge of course has its own language, and so here is a direct quote from the internet: LTE is the natural upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS network and CDMA 2000 networks.
Hmm.
Webopedia (a dictionary of computer definitions) says: LTE is a 4G wireless communication standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
Hmm again. Another source says (direct quote): succeeding 3G, and preceding 5G. Well, well -- it is sometimes astonishing what one can find on the internet ...
Wikipedia goes on to say: Mobile WiMAX Release 2 (also known as Wireless MAN-Advanced or IEEE 802.16m) and LTE-A are IMT-Advanced compliant backwards compatible versions ... The fastest 3G-based standard in the CDMA2000 family is the EV-DO Rev.B... which offers 15.67 Mbits/sec downstream...
But we are still mystified; what is it?
A minor quibble I have is that the computer scientists' usage of the word 'speed' differs from its dictionary definition, distance divided by time, as in m.p.h. The speed of the data is extremely close to the speed of light -- and nothing can exceed that -- not cell fone messages, nor X-rays, nor rocket ships. We can only increase the amount of data, eg, 'photographs per second' that we are downloading.
The way engineers have achieved some of this is by upping the frequency bands. This so-called bandwidth is now referred to in a popular way, as in "I don't have the bandwidtth" meaning "I don't have the time -- the capability -- of fitting it into my schedule."
Finally, this advertising of 4GLTE on TV clearly needs a computer-trained person to translate into everyday language. I look forward to someone telling us what 4GLTE is, without jargon or acronyms -- but a little more than "4G is greater than 3G and less than 5G."