4G is coming. So what.

4G is coming. So what.

The UAE’s telecom sector may be promising but there still quite a bit of kinks to be fixed before Precious de Leon can actually look forward to these technological advances.

July 3, 2011 5:18 by p.deleon

If you’re in the UAE, 4G technology is going your world soon—that’s if this Gulf News Q&A with Alan Hadden, global president of Global Mobile Suppliers Association, is anything to go by. (You can’t miss the headline, it says “4G online technology in UAE will open new age of communication.” O-M-G. Be still your beating heart that one was quite a shocker: a new technology gives us a new age of communication. *sigh*)

So apparently 4G will be ten times faster then 3G…and all that jazz. Wow. Impressive, eh? But don’t jump for 4G joy just yet. Reading through the Q&A, you’ll find that 4G is still a somewhat distant promise since Etisalat and Du are still just now testing Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which is hoped to come out by the end of this year. Once that’s out of the way, then 4G will soon be on top priority.

To tell you the truth, Kipp’s got a lot of patience when it comes to waiting for these technologies to be launched in the UAE. After all, what good is the availability of such technology when the price tag to avail of them will cost me an arm and a leg? What good is it when simple things like VOIP is still a contentious topic? And on a regional basis, when governments across the region (and indeed the world) can still block access to the internet (and get away with it) to gain the upper hand in a civil uprising. See? Suddenly having 4G just doesn’t seem that important anymore.