Everything you need to know about 4.5G technology
Table of Contents
Enquanto or 5G is still in the stage of developing standards and carrying out tests, the telephone industry creates solutions to improve 4G, which according to data from OpenSignal, is present in 55.29% of Brazilian territory.
This improvement is being “sold” as 4.5G ou 4G +. Technically it's called LTE-Advanced.
After all, what is 4.5G?
First of all, we have to make it clear that in the view of some names in the industry, 4.5G ou 4G + it's not a new one standard, that is, a completely new standard, but an update of the existing standard, the 4G.
Leonardo Capdeville, CTO of TIM, in an interview with the website Digital Convergence, says that there is no half technology and that the 4.5G it is more of a marketing positioning, a way of naming the advances that operators are offering for technology 4G.
The new standard, which can be seen as disruptive, will be the 5G, that promises deliver a very low latency (less than 1 ms) and a speed that exceeds 1 Gbps.
Obviously, when we talk about tests, even 4G can reach such speed. recently the Clear, in partnership with Ericsson and Qualcomm, carried out a test in São Paulo that combines 20 MHz of the 2,6 GHz band (from 4G, which is licensed) with 60 MHz of the 5 GHz band (unlicensed spectrum).
The device used, in addition to dealing with 4×4 MIMO antennas, which means that communication could be done with four antennas for transmission and another four for reception, had a modem Snapdragon X16 LTE, capable of reaching speeds in the region of 1 Gbps. The test result was that this network of Clear reached rates close to 1 Gbps.
How does 4.5G work?
The operation of the 4.5 G is mainly due to a factor called Carrier Aggregation (Operator aggregation, in literal translation). In practice, it means joining several operator signals of different frequencies and being able to work as if they were a single frequency. That's why the performance of 4.5G varies according to the operator's infrastructure, that is, how much it manages to add.
The trend is that all operators that offer this service in Brazil, such as Of course, alive e TIM, proceed to make this aggregate with three tracks: 2600Mhz, 1800Mhz and 700 Mhz, which today still belongs to the analog TV signal, but which is gradually being transferred to telephony.
Is the performance much better than 4G?
Switching off the analog TV signal is very important for the maturation of the 4.5G. With the definitive release of the 700 MHz band and the establishment of this technology, the Clear, for example, promises to deliver speeds above 200 Mbps with a peak of 400 Mbps, since in addition to the 2600 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, it also incorporates the 700 MHz band, which guarantees even more speed.
comparing with the 4G, operating at 100 or 150 Mbps, the leap is really quite significant.
Remembering that the rates that reach the consumer's device are much lower, as they vary according to a huge set of factors. In the case of 4G, the download speed reaches an average of 14 Mbps. As 4.5G rises to, on average, 40 Mbps.
Is it present throughout Brazil?
Not. THE Clear already offers the 4.5G in Brasília and together with its plan to add the 700 MHz band, the service will be expanded to more locations. The forecast is that by the end of the year it will arrive in Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Vitória, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Salvador, São Luís and Campinas.
A Living, With your 4.5+ it is already present in 91 cities and by the end of the year it should arrive in over 100 cities. With the TIM, by the end of the year, 400 cities will receive the technology.
How do I get access to 4.5G?
This is where things get a little complicated. like the 4.5G it is still a technology that is gaining shape and needs a combination of new technologies, the device that will receive this signal has to be in agreement. There are three prerequisites:
- carrier aggregation
- MIMO × 4 4
- Advanced modulation 256QAM
In Brazil, some models are already able to operate with this technology, among them we highlight the following:
Yes, they are still expensive and top-of-the-line devices, but as this technology advances, it will be incorporated into mid-range and more attractively priced devices. That's how it is with all new technology like biometric readers and now dual cameras.
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