| Everything shows that this year will be decisive for | | | | Baltimore and Portland. The companies announced to |
| selecting technology for 4G wireless systems. | | | | include another 10 cities this year. However, there are |
| Wireless networks of the Fourth Generation should | | | | new disturbing facts - at the end of last year |
| provide mobile data transmission at speeds of 100 | | | | Alcatel-Lucent abandoned development of solutions |
| Mbps - to fast-moving terminals - and 1 Gbps in the | | | | based on WiMAX technology, in January this year |
| case of relatively fixed positions of the terminals. | | | | Nokia stopped work on WiMAX devices as well. |
| Currently the development of mobile technologies for | | | | According to vice-president Anssi Vanjoki from Nokia, |
| 4G goes two ways, WiMAX and LTE. | | | | LTE technology is more promising. |
| WiMAX technology is more advanced in terms of | | | | LTE (Long Term Evolution) is being developed to |
| implementation. However, it lacks a major marketing | | | | improve the Universal Mobile Telecommunications |
| success which could persuade manufacturers to start | | | | System (UMTS). LTE is to increase the |
| production of new, cheaper devices. | | | | performance of the 3G UMTS packet service (based |
| The concept of building all-American 4G networks | | | | on TCP/IP protocol), with data rates over 100 Mbps. It |
| based on WiMAX - first pushed by Sprint company, | | | | has been adopted as a 4G standard by AT&T, |
| then developed as a common project with Clearwire - | | | | Telstra, Vodafone, China Telecom, T-Mobile, and |
| still faces difficulties. Despite the expenditure of 3 billion | | | | Verizon yet. |
| dollars, the service has so far been launched only in | | | | |