Gone are the days when the only functionality of mobile phones was making calls. These days mobile phones are more than calls or messages because mobile has become a necessity for Internet usage and internet browsing – internet access has become such an essential feature of staying connected, whenever and wherever you want. The Internet can be accessed through network technologies like 3G, 4G, and so on.
3G and 4G are mobile technologies to provide better usages of mobile internet for several activities, be it uploading or downloading photos, videos, and other digital data. 3G and 4G are network types used by mobile phones to connect to the internet and are distinguished in terms of data transfer rate, capacity, technology compliance, IP architecture, information processing design, variety of connections, etc. So now let us see difference between 3G and 4G along with Smart 5g tester, 5G test equipment, 5g network tester tools and Smart 4G Testing RF drive test software, Cellular LTE RF drive test tools & equipment in detail.
What is 3G technology?
3G means the third generation of mobile telephone technology, which optimizes the speed of downloading and uploading media files, internet calling, playing videos, listening to music, and the ability to transfer voice and data (music downloads, emails, and instant messaging) over the same network simultaneously. 3G is Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) which is not only faster than 2G or 2nd generation but also beneficial for high frequency in bandwidth for high-speed mobile applications and multimedia transfer. 3G delivers broadband capacity, provides data transfer rates of 384 kbit/second, and supports wide-area cell-based network architecture, and a larger number of voice and data customers at a low cost.
What is 4G technology?
4G stands for Fourth Generation Technology or 4th Generation of mobile signal strength that delivers a lot of capability for faster mobile broadband experiences and permits a lot of connections. 4G technology optimizes the speed of streaming videos, buffer-free music, internet calling, etc. 4G speeds offer a maximum of 100mbps in optimum conditions, which will enable you to download content within seconds, and stream video and music without buffering. In addition, the loading of web pages, and images will be quicker with a 4G network that supports the integration of Wireless LAN as well as wide-area cell-based network architecture.
Difference between 3g and 4g technology
- 3G uses a packet-switching technique, whereas 4G uses the packet-switching technique as well as the message-switching technique.
- 3G technology is a wide-area cell-based network architecture, whereas 4G is the combination of Wireless LAN and Wide Area cell-based network architecture.
- 3G utilizes CDMA whereas 4G utilizes OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access).
- The highest uploading rate of 3G is 5 Mbps and the download rate is 21 Mbps whereas, in 4G, 500 Mbps is the highest uploading rate and 1Gbps peak is the download rate.
- Data bandwidth on 3G is 2 Mbps – 21 Mbps and on 4G, it is 2 Mbps – 1 Gbps.
- In 3G, handoff management is done vertically whereas, in 4G, it’s done vertically as well as horizontally.
- The frequency range of 3G is from 1.8 GHz to 2.5 GHz, whereas the frequency range of 4G is from 2 GHz to 8 GHz.
- 3G technology can upload data at a maximum speed of 5 Mbps and download at 21 Mbps, and 4G technology can upload data at a maximum speed of 500 Mbps and download at 1 Gbps.
Conclusion
Whether it’s 3G or 4G technology, network monitoring, and testing are needed to conduct on both the networks to ensure the users with good network stability. There are two different ways to perform network testing on 5G/4G/3G coverages, one is a traditional method, and the other one is a non-traditional method. But people are choosing non-traditional over the traditional method of network measurement, and RantCell is one of the tools/apps that can be installed in any Android or iOS device to run the test. Many customers have already started using RantCell due to some important reasons like being easy to use, money saving by avoiding travel onsite, possible to perform tests remotely, being capable to generate test reports in near real-time, and so on. If your requirements are related to network measurement, try using RantCell to get the optimum solution.
