The Threat of 4G Wireless Against Traditional Broadband Internet

As technology advances, it tends to become even more convenient and user-friendly, providing its customers with many new features that make their daily usage much simpler. Mobility is another feature that consumers look for in a product. Just as telecommunications has become more compact and mobile within the last decade, internet technology is moving towards a similar trajectory. With the advent of the 4G network, people are able to enjoy the mobility granted to them by this mobile internet technology without sacrificing the quality and speed of the internet connection.

The 4G network provides its users internet access from both their smart phones and their laptop computers, differing from its predecessor, the 3G network. With the 3G wireless connection, you could only access the worldwide web from just your smart phone, resulting in a much slower internet connection. While you could rely on it for consistent internet access, its slow speeds prevented you from fully utilizing all that the internet had to offer. The heightened speeds of the 4G network grants you an internet connection comparable to the internet access you have at home, such as cable or DSL. With a much more reliable internet connection on your smart phone and laptop computer, you can do a lot more, including video chatting, video streaming, and file uploads and downloads.

Essentially, you have the quality of internet connection and access that you would with your cable or DSL connection; however, you also maintain the freedom to move around the city without being tied down to a desk or geographical vicinity. Internet connections have come a long way from dial-up connections, where your computer needed to be connected to not only a bunch of cords, but also the telephone line. Cable and DSL connections operated faster; however, they also required cords to access the internet. With the advent of wireless routers, you could have limited mobility within general vicinity around your home or office, allowing you to access the internet on your laptop without being tied down to your desk. Now, with the 4G network, you can access this same high speed internet anywhere in the city from your smart phone or laptop computer.

Telephones have also become increasingly mobile, resulting in cellular phones overtaking direct phone lines as the most common and relied method of communication. The year 2009 marked the first time in which there were more subscriptions to cellular phone plans than basic telephone lines. It proves much more convenient for someone to have their direct line that can be reached wherever they may be rather than a shared family phone line. Similarly, this 4G wireless internet connection might soon overtake traditional broadband connections as the dominant form of internet. For most people, the wireless connection provides you enough speed and power for what you are accustomed to doing on the internet. So, why pay for two connections when the wireless format provides you with access when you're at home and when you're on-the-go?