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Mobile Communications Presentation: In March 2002 NTT DoCoMo announced that trials had begun on the next generation of mobile communications. Dubbed '4G', the new I-mode technology will increase data transmission rates (up to 200 times faster than 2G at 20Mbit/sec). 3G data rates are currently 2Mbit/sec, which is very fast compared to 2G's 9.6Kbit/sec. 4G builds on the 3G standard, although it integrates and unifies the different interfaces (W-CDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE, etc). Since December 2000, NTT DoCoMo and Hewlett-Packard have been jointly developing the software and hardware that make high-speed wireless possible. In October 2001, 3G was successfully rolled-out in Japan, and the new technology will depend on using the established base stations and mobile station equipment. The introduction of 3G technology provided a huge expansion in mobile capacity and bandwidth, and 4G will do the same for the spectrum of broadband communications. The Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has announced that it is setting up a panel of experts to develop standards for 4G cellular technologies aiming to launch 4G services targeted at around 2007. Japan is planning to invest $10 billion in 4G development. At ITU Telecom Asia 2000 (December 4-9, Hong Kong), 4G was expect-edly one of the hot topics. Ericsson confirmed that it is expected to contribute $12 million to the California Institute of Telecommunications Information and Technology to conduct studies of wireless communication in the fourth generation of wireless technology. In many cases, 4G will not be seen as a defined standard under development, but rather as a collection of technologies and protocols to enable the highest throughput, lowest cost wireless network possible. The development of 4G technologies will leverage upon technologies that are now being developed. Some existing technologies that may be applied to 4G are: wireless LAN, W-OFDM (Wideband Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution). The cellular industry began developing 2G systems in the early 1980s. As experience shows, the lead-time for mobile phone systems development is about 10 years. Primary thinking on 3G took place in 1991 as 2G (GSM) systems just started to roll out. Therefore, it is felt that 4G should be operational from around 2011, and would build on the second phase of 3G when all networks are expected to embrace Internet protocol (IP) technology.
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