In the world of mobile technology speed is king and the current holy grail of media delivery is 4g which is the next generation of bandwidth technology for wireless communications. 4g is already available from Sprint and Clear ( which are in effect one and the same) utilizing the WiMAX standard. This standard is based on 802.16 wireless standard and in theory supports up to 40Mbit/s under optimal conditions.  More typical experiences would be in the 1-4 Mbit/s range though through Sprint’s Network. This is still 5-10x faster than current 3g networks in place. The biggest advantage of WiMAX is it can operate over long distances up to 50km, of course at longer distances bandwidth drops dramatically as errors rise.

LTE is what Verizon and AT&T both plan on implementing in 2011. They are marketing this as a 4g service but in reality it is 3.9g. It will seamlessly work with their existing networks and should have download speeds of 20Mbit/s , but in Sweden, where this technology is already in place, download speeds are more like 2Mbit/s.  This puts it in the same range as WiMax. Of course AT&T has to step up its efforts to deliver better service which it is accomplishing by installing fiber optic back hauls for all of its towers to get ready for LTE’s roll out. Good news for iphone users who roll their eyes at the slow downloads currently on AT&Ts network.