4G is all the rage these days, and it’s faster than 3G, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. 4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone technology. It follows on from the existing 3G (third generation) and 2G (second generation) mobile technology. 4G technology builds upon what 3G offers, but does everything at a much faster speed.

The benefits of 4G fall firmly into three categories. These are:

• Improved download and upload speeds
• Reduced latency
• Clear voice calls

Improved download/upload speeds

4G download speeds

Standard 4G (or 4G LTE) is around 5 to 7 times faster than 3G, offering theoretical speeds of up to around 150Mbps. That equates to maximum potential speeds of around 80Mbps in the real world, although this is tricky to achieve.

With standard 4G you can download a 2GB HD film in 3 minutes 20 seconds on a standard 4G mobile network, while it would take over 25 minutes on a standard 3G network.

However, a new even faster version of 4G is already available in many parts of the UK called 4G LTE-Advanced (also known as LTE-A, 4.5G or 4G+).

This offers theoretical speeds of up to 1.5Gbps, but the current crop of LTE-A networks have a maximum potential speed of 300Mbps with real world speeds falling a lot lower. You can expect the availability of LTE-A to increase in the coming years and speeds could get faster still.

Even further ahead there’s 5G, which is already being developed and there are aims to start rolling it out by 2020 and deliver drastically faster speeds than you could ever hope to see on 4G. Current estimates put download speeds over 5G at anything from 1-10Gbps.

Reduced latency

Average Latency Or Ping (3G and 4G LTE networks)

Download speeds aren’t the only thing that has been improved, because 4G also has a better response time than 3G – due to lower “latency”. This means that a device connected to a 4G mobile network will get a quicker response to a request than the same device connected to a 3G mobile network.

The improved latency times, reduced from 120 milliseconds (3G) to around 75 milliseconds (4G), may not seem that significant on paper. However, they can make a significant difference when playing online games and streaming live video.

Crystal clear voice calls

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is similar to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which use voice apps such as Skype to support voice calls over the internet. Effectively, VoLTE rides on the back of the 4G network and brings crystal clear voice calls and video chat to your 4G mobile phone.

Another benefit is that it allows you to call and text when you only have a 4G connection, where previously you wouldn’t have been able to.

VoLTE is now available from Three, EE, O2, Vodafone, iD Mobile and Virgin Mobile, but only in select locations and on certain handsets. Check out our full VoLTE guide for detailed information on availability.

We mentioned above that 5G will deliver even higher speeds than 4G, and in preparation for that Ofcom recently auctioned some spectrum earmarked for 5G use, but at the same time it also auctioned additional 4G-ready spectrum, so some operators may be able to strengthen their 4G networks.