Europe : Cellular operators have been thus far limited to coping with one cellular technology which purpose is to provide a single service in a wide area. With the advent of 3G this telecommunication landscape will evolve. In densely populated urban and suburban areas, for example, 3G will provide higher bit rates and means for enhanced services. Similarly, in hot spots where usage is high, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) will complement 2G/3G service offering by providing access to the same services, but with even higher bandwidth. Technologies with other coverage vs. capacity properties, such as satellite networks, fixed wireless access (e.g. IEEE 802.16) and PAN (Bluetooth, 802.15), might further complement current operations.

Native technologies for radio access networks differ in many regards. However there is a general industrial trend to migrate the networks towards an IP based solution. This allows for easy and cost effective service creation through reuse of application software as well as straightforward interoperability with existing Internet services. In addition IP is technology independent and can thus work on any underlying access technology. As such it represents the glue between the different radio networks. A network that uses the Internet Protocol to combine different radio access networks is hereafter referred to as 4G network.

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