My name’s Colin Ainscough and I am a designer based in Lancashire, England. I create artwork for all types of projects, from print right through to web site development. I am not currently accepting new projects; however, if you like what I do and would like to know more then contact me here. In the meantime, here is my site complete with portfolio and if you are really bored, my blog is here to.

Why you should be excited about 4G

If you have been carrying a mobile phone around for the last 10 years, or more recently a tablet, then you will know how important the Internet has become to these devices. Without those mobile connections, we wouldn’t be able to tweet, share pictures, use maps, get direction or surf the web on our handheld devices; and 4G is hoping to make that whole experience better, much, much better.

But first, a little background on the progression of mobile Internet.

In the last ten to fifteen years mobile devices have moved swiftly from the first mobile Internet service of the late 90s. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gave mobile devices their first true taste of an Internet connection. Mainly WAP was slow and unreliable; but it showed even at this early stage how important mobile internet could be.

WAP was quickly followed by EDGE (Enhanced GPRS), which improved things as far as reliability but still lacked the speed necessary to cope with the modern web.

Finally, there is 3G (3rd generation) which quickly developed into the mobile connection standard that we use today. 3G covers about 75% of the UK and can handle most websites; and in strong areas streaming video is pretty painless. However, the problem with 3G, as with all other technology, is it is becoming old and too slow to cope with the Internet of today. Web sites are becoming more reliant on high bandwidth media, such as video and audio. Cloud storage services and music streaming require a much more powerful connection and 3G just can’t cope.

But hang-on, what is that I see galloping over the horizon, is it, could it be, surely not super fast mobile broadband!

Well, yes I think we can safely say it is here, under the shiny brand of 4G. Now you may think that this will be the same as the last two generations where performance is only improved ‘a little’; but from the research I have done it looks like 4G could be as much as 100 times faster than 3G, making this a huge leap forward. Also, if the rumours are true, then eventually watching video or streaming music should be a walk-in-the-park; not to mention the huge benefits I am sure businesses across the country will experience.

So when will it arrive? Well unfortunately you are going to have to wait just a little while longer. Ofcom have given permission to Everything Everywhere (or Orange and T-Mobile to you and I) to launch the first 4G network in September. This should mean that most other networks can start bidding for the service early next year; and I would expect 4G to really kick in during the latter part of 2013.

So if like me you have been longing for broadband on-the-go, then this should be exciting news. I am sure there will be coverage problems and teething issues as there have been with 3G; but in 18 months time we should all be enjoying a truly fast, pain free and mobile web.