The 4G revolution is soon to be on its way and APC Solutions
thinks about time to. With UK consumers spending over £50 billion on internet
shopping in 2010, mobile networks needed to ensure their piece of the pie is
safe.
In this time-starved society, the UK consumer demands
instantaneous access to everything at the click of a button or swipe of a
screen. Need your weekly shop, swipe the screen. Need to order flowers for that
forgotten birthday, swipe the screen. Need to transfer money, swipe and it is
there. Need to send that report to your boss, update, swipe and send. There are
over 12.8 million smartphones in use in the UK and consumers are thirsty for
sites that operate without chaining them to a laptop. APC Solutions equips its
staff with the latest mobile technology to ensure data and information can be
fed back to and responded to far quicker than waiting to log in from the
laptop. This in itself plays a vital role in keeping business on track, the ability
to do this even faster? Even better.
Gone are the days of waiting an eternity for the standard
online version of a page to load, even when you have a 3G signal. Now, there is
an app or mobile friendly site for almost everything the consumer needs, often
making it a shock to see a non-mobile version of a popular retailer. UK mobile
internet sales could double in the next few years. By 2013, mobile internet
sales could reach as much as £275m, 4% of online retail spending.*
And not to mention the need to socially interact though our
phone. Gone is the time when a simple text will do. Now, it is a constant
stream of information fed though social networks. Checking in at each bar you
visit on a Friday night to gain your free drink or meet with your friends.
Updating your status while watching the Olympics and setting the latest athlete
trending. Or even, commenting on that photo of a certain person caught enjoying
themselves whilst on vacation. How many of us forgo the morning paper choosing
to read the latest news on Twitter as it happens rather than five hours later or
even the next day in print. And how many businesses, including APC Solutions use
a mobile device to update its customers with the latest news, views and goings
on rather than sending out newsletters or hard copy reports when it can do this
faster online.
So, just what is 4G and how will it benefit the standard
mobile user? Well, it is all about speed. 4G downloads will be up to up to 20x
faster than 3G enabling you to download an album in under 1 minute compared to
5 minutes with 3G. Or a film in 10 minutes as opposed to an hour with 3G.
Amazon launched its new 4G Kindle in LA this week, which offers a full year of 4G LTE service for
just $50. However, 4G is not yet available in the UK. Everything Everywhere,
the amalgamation of T Mobile and Orange is investing £1.5bn to instrument a 4G
network in the later part of 2012. 4G is already available across the United
States, Canada, Russia, Australia, Brazil and parts of Europe as well as others
Including India, Angola and of course Hong Kong.
So why is the
UK so slow on the uptake? The role out to 4G has been in the pipeline with
Ofcom working towards an auction process due to start in the later part of
2012, early 2013. 4G runs across airwaves and will need to coincide with the
traditional 2G and 3G frequencies. There is also the investment and the
possibility of the 4G frequency interfering with digital transmissions. This
can be easily rectified but of course, demands a body to deal with and educate
users to re tune their frequencies.
However, over 82% of people polled by Everything Everywhere
believe that 4G is vital for Britain. And, with the UK internet economy valued
at over 100bn per year and growing at a steady 10% year on year, who can blame
them?
To read more visit the APC Solutions website www.apcsolutionsuk.com or follow us on
Twitter https://twitter.com/apcsolutionsuk
or like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/APCSolutionsUK
