Samsung claims first 4G demo

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 31 August 2006 12:57

Business IT - Technology

Samsung Electronics is to stage what it claims will be the world's first demonstration of 4th Generation (4G) mobile technology. However there is yet no agreement on exactly what constitutes 4G technology.
Samsung claims it will demonstrate, at the annual Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island, data rates of 100Mbps to a vehicle moving at up to 60kms/hr, with cell-to-cell handover, and rates up to 1Gbps inside the exhibition area.

Samsung has said little about the technology it will demonstrate or where it sits in relation to other so-called 4G wireless technologies, saying only that it will demonstrate 8X8 MIMO (multi-input multi-output) technology (ie transmitter and receiver will each have eight antennas to make use of multipath transmissions.

Ki Tae Lee, president of Samsung's Telecommunications Network Business, said that Samsung hoped to "drive development and standardisation of 4G mobile technology with the successful demonstration and realise our dream to begin the 4G era." He added "We hope to work with associated parties for the successful commercialisation of 4G technology."

The ITU defines 4G technology as a future wireless telecommunications technology allowing data transfer rates of 1Gbps at nomadic circumstances and 100Mbps at mobile circumstances, so in  that respect the demo fits the bill, but how this will be achieved is still far from settled.

However if one takes Sprint Nextel at its word, mobile WiMAX IS 4G. When it announced its plans for a large scale WiMAX network earlier this month,  to which Samsung is a major supplier, the company said: "Sprint Nextel today announced its plans to develop and deploy the first fourth generation (4G) nationwide broadband mobile network. The 4G wireless broadband network will use the mobile WiMAX  IEEE 802.16e-2005 technology standard."

The spectrum for 4G technology will be decided at WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) in October of 2007. The 4G mobile communications format is expected to become commercially available around 2010.