ITU Changes Tune, LTE and WiMax Can Be Called '4G'

Sunday, December 19, 2010

During its December 6 meeting, the International Telecommunication Union made steps in finalizing the LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced specs, and noted that they have reached the official designation of IMT-Advanced. IMT-Advanced is what the ITU considers to be real 4G. However, the ITU changed its stance regarding LTE and WiMax. It said, "It is recognized that [4G], while undefined, may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed." In short, wireless network operators can market their LTE and WiMax networks as 4G, and not run afoul of the ITU's standards.
more info at ITU »