3GPP urges caution over IMT-Advanced promises

No fewer than six technologies have been submitted, seeking approval as official standards for IMT-Advanced, the next wave of wireless systems, which is designed finally to achieve 'true 4G' or gigabit stationary speeds (100Mbps mobile). Whereas a few years ago, few would have seen the need for such performance, now it seems operators can hardly wait to access the platforms that will let them support massive mobile broadband and multimedia usage, and while they may have years to wait for real 4G, they are increasing the momentum behind current technologies, LTE and WiMAX.

The ITU will select its IMT-Advanced technologies in October 2010. It released details of the six proposals, which are based around the third generation of LTE (3GPP Release 10) and IEEE 802.16m (WiMAX 2.0). The ITU's Radiocommunications Working Party 5D will assess all the submissions over the coming year, supported by "independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world". Article