4G Americas is a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies. The organization was established in January 2002 under the name 3G Americas. On September 28, 2010, 3G Americas announced the organization's name change to 4G Americas. [1] 4G Americas works throughout the Western hemisphere to inform government agencies, other businesses and the public about the 3GPP wireless technologies. [2] [3]
4G Americas works with government agencies, regulatory bodies, technical standards organizations and other global wireless organizations to promote interoperability and convergence. The organization holds partnership agreements, MOUs or memberships with global wireless organizations, including the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) of the Organization of American States, working agreements with the GSMA, UMTS Forum, Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), the Centro de Investigación de las Telecomunicaciones (CINTEL) in Colombia, the Cámara de Empresas de Servicios de Telecomunicaciones (CASETEL) in Venezuela and Association of Telecommunications Enterprises of the Andean Community (ASETA). [4]
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for all matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established in 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, making it among the oldest international organizations still in operation.
3G is the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. It is the upgrade for 2.5G GPRS and 2.75G EDGE networks, for faster data transfer. This is based on a set of standards used for mobile devices and mobile telecommunications use services and networks that comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. 3G finds application in wireless voice telephony, mobile Internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls and mobile TV.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of:
CDMA2000 is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible successor to second-generation cdmaOne (IS-95) set of standards and used especially in North America and South Korea.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) is a collaboration between telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. In practice, 3GPP2 is the standardization group for CDMA2000, the set of 3G standards based on the earlier cdmaOne 2G CDMA technology.
4G is the fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology, succeeding 3G, and preceding 5G. A 4G system must provide capabilities defined by ITU in IMT Advanced. Potential and current applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, and 3D television.
The PTCRB was established in 1997 as the certification forum by select North American cellular operators. Now a pseudo-acronym, it no longer stands for its original meaning of the PCS Type Certification Review Board.
Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS) is a point-to-multipoint interface specification for existing 3GPP cellular networks, which is designed to provide efficient delivery of broadcast and multicast services, both within a cell as well as within the core network. For broadcast transmission across multiple cells, it defines transmission via single-frequency network configurations. The specification is referred to as Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) when transmissions are delivered through an LTE network. eMBMS is also known as LTE Broadcast.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) is a standards organization that develops technical and operational standards and solutions for the ICT industry, headquartered in Washington, D.C. The organization is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding Partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member of and major U.S. contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL).
Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access via mobile networks. Access to the network can be made through a portable modem, USB wireless modem, or a tablet/smartphone or other mobile device. The first wireless Internet access became available in 1991 as part of the second generation (2G) of mobile phone technology. Higher speeds became available in 2001 and 2006 as part of the third (3G) and fourth (4G) generations. In 2011, 90% of the world's population lived in areas with 2G coverage, while 45% lived in areas with 2G and 3G coverage. Mobile broadband uses the spectrum of 225 MHz to 3700 MHz.
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is a not-for-profit industry organisation representing companies across the worldwide mobile ecosystem engaged in the supply of infrastructure, semiconductors, test equipment, devices, applications and mobile support services.
ETSI is an independent, not-for-profit, standardization organization in the field of information and communications. ETSI supports the development and testing of global technical standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services.
LTE Advanced is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard, and was standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in March 2011 as 3GPP Release 10.
International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced are the requirements issued by the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2008 for what is marketed as 4G mobile phone and Internet access service.
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance is a mobile telecommunications association of mobile operators, vendors, manufacturers and research institutes. It was founded by major mobile operators in 2006 as an open forum to evaluate candidate technologies to develop a common view of solutions for the next evolution of wireless networks. Its objective is to ensure the successful commercial launch of future mobile broadband networks through a roadmap for technology and friendly user trials. Its office is in Frankfurt, Germany.
AirHop Communications is a privately funded American corporation based in San Diego, CA. AirHop develops radio access network (RAN) software that addresses the installation, operation and performance challenges of multi-layer deployments of small cells in 3G and 4G networks. AirHop's customers are typically base station equipment vendors for wireless network operators.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) telecommunications networks use several frequency bands with associated bandwidths.
The China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) is a Chinese professional standards organization with the responsibility for developing communications technology standards. The organization was founded on 18 December 2002, by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry.
LTE in unlicensed spectrum is a proposed extension of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless standard intended to allow cellular network operators to offload some of their data traffic by accessing the unlicensed 5 GHz frequency band. LTE-Unlicensed is a proposal, originally developed by Qualcomm, for the use of the 4G LTE radio communications technology in unlicensed spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band used by 802.11a and 802.11ac compliant Wi-Fi equipment. It would serve as an alternative to carrier-owned Wi-Fi hotspots. Currently, there are a number of variants of LTE operation in the unlicensed band, namely LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA), and MulteFire.