What are the Differences Between 3G and 4G?
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 6:16 am
VoIP has become dominant in enterprise telephony due to its low costs, use of modern infrastructure and incredible flexibility. While VoIP platforms allow users from any location to take advantage of enterprise VoIP numbers, previous generations of mobile data network have not provided enough stability to deliver reasonable 4G VoIP calls quality.
With 4G becoming the new standard, however, this is changing. While 3G networks offered enough theoretical bandwidth, other issues ranging from latency to architecture, often made 3G VoIP calls exercises in sheer frustration, 4G networks offer improved bandwidth, stability, and connectivity, to make VoIP over 4G viable.
But what has changed poland telegram between 3G and 4G to cause this and what does VoIP calling over 4G offer, as opposed to simply placing a mobile call?
As you may know, the ‘G’ in 3G and 4G stands for ‘generation’; simply, the iteration of mobile data network. 3G was considered to be Mobile Broadband, offering an average of 5.9 Mbits per second download, according to OFCOM.
Compared with most broadband, however, this simply doesn’t stack up. 4G, on the other hand, is delivering speeds higher than the UK average broadband speed: nearly 15 Mbits per second download and a speed greater than 2 Mbits 97 percent of the time.
More relevant to VoIP calling is the upload speed: 3G networks averaged 1.6 Mbits, delivering over 2 Mbits only 30 percent of the time. 4G, in contrast, delivers 13.6 Mbits on average, with speeds greater than 2 Mbits almost 94 percent of the time – more than enough for consistent VoIP calls.
Importantly, the latency (i.e. the time for a packet of data to travel from the user to the server) on 4G is below 0.1 second almost 99 percent of the time. This may seem like a trivial delay, but during a voice conversation even a small delay can cause frustration.
A major reason for this increase which renders VoIP far more usable, is a fundamental change in architecture: from circuit to packet switching. Circuit switching means that once you connect, you have a fixed logical ‘circuit’ with bandwidth dedicated to you. This may seem desirable, but in practice, it means that if you are allocated less bandwidth than you need, you are stuck with that for the duration. Other individuals on the network not creating traffic still have a fixed allocation assigned, rapidly using up available resources.
4G uses packet switching instead, as with the rest of the IP communication infrastructure. This means that data from all users travels in the same pipeline and is allocated as it comes through. There is the potential for delays, but the infrastructure is only used when there is data flowing through it, instead of being reserved for individuals even when unused.
Call Quality on
With 4G becoming the new standard, however, this is changing. While 3G networks offered enough theoretical bandwidth, other issues ranging from latency to architecture, often made 3G VoIP calls exercises in sheer frustration, 4G networks offer improved bandwidth, stability, and connectivity, to make VoIP over 4G viable.
But what has changed poland telegram between 3G and 4G to cause this and what does VoIP calling over 4G offer, as opposed to simply placing a mobile call?
As you may know, the ‘G’ in 3G and 4G stands for ‘generation’; simply, the iteration of mobile data network. 3G was considered to be Mobile Broadband, offering an average of 5.9 Mbits per second download, according to OFCOM.
Compared with most broadband, however, this simply doesn’t stack up. 4G, on the other hand, is delivering speeds higher than the UK average broadband speed: nearly 15 Mbits per second download and a speed greater than 2 Mbits 97 percent of the time.
More relevant to VoIP calling is the upload speed: 3G networks averaged 1.6 Mbits, delivering over 2 Mbits only 30 percent of the time. 4G, in contrast, delivers 13.6 Mbits on average, with speeds greater than 2 Mbits almost 94 percent of the time – more than enough for consistent VoIP calls.
Importantly, the latency (i.e. the time for a packet of data to travel from the user to the server) on 4G is below 0.1 second almost 99 percent of the time. This may seem like a trivial delay, but during a voice conversation even a small delay can cause frustration.
A major reason for this increase which renders VoIP far more usable, is a fundamental change in architecture: from circuit to packet switching. Circuit switching means that once you connect, you have a fixed logical ‘circuit’ with bandwidth dedicated to you. This may seem desirable, but in practice, it means that if you are allocated less bandwidth than you need, you are stuck with that for the duration. Other individuals on the network not creating traffic still have a fixed allocation assigned, rapidly using up available resources.
4G uses packet switching instead, as with the rest of the IP communication infrastructure. This means that data from all users travels in the same pipeline and is allocated as it comes through. There is the potential for delays, but the infrastructure is only used when there is data flowing through it, instead of being reserved for individuals even when unused.
Call Quality on