First 4G phone.
4G phones are phones that are capable of using a 4G network where available. 4G is the successor to 3G and 2G networks and stands for "4th generation." The first 4G phone was the HTC Evo carried by Sprint and was available to the public June 2010. 4G is faster than the other types of networks as of March 2011.
History
4G phones are used to send data on a 4G network. As of March 2011, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, MetroPCS, T-Mobile have 4G networks or are working to develop them. Since the HTC Evo's release, the Motorola Atrix 4G, HTC Inspire 4G, EVO Shift 4G, myTouch 4G, and Samsung Epic 4G have all been released.
Function
4G has all of the same features of 3G plus on-demand video, video conferencing, high quality streaming video, high quality streaming video, high quality Voice-over-IP and added security features. A 4G phone's speed is affected by mobility and can have speeds up to 1Gbit/s for a stationary person. It has speeds up to 100 Mbit/s for non-stationary users. When 4G service is not available a 4G phone is also capable of using 3G technology.
Identification
Not all phones are 4G capable. When looking for a 4G phone look for one that says 4G in the name of the device. According to ITU, the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, "A number of the so called 4G technologies are in fact actually evolutions of 3G technologies, e.g. Long Term Evolution (LTE) from 3GPP and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) from 3GPP2."
Types
4G phones are typically smartphones because they make the best use of the technology. Smartphones are phones with applications and Internet access and are capable of text messages, have cameras and video viewing. They can have touchscreens or keyboards.
Tags: high quality, capable using, high quality streaming, March 2011, quality streaming