wer latency, increased data rates on both the downlink and uplink, full mobility, support for existing 3G networks, and reduced cost. Much of the vision is based on a new generation of handsets capable of handling a wide variety of technologies and communications links and providing all these services concurrently. Both the NTT DoCoMo Super 3G and KDDI Ultra 3G plans assume that the 3G airlink will be the most widely used full mobility technology, although they also consider that Wi-Fi and other technologies will be integrated into these net- works. The overall concept is to allow customers to use the best airlink available them and to support voice and data services over the selected airlink. Along with the NTT DoCoMo and KDDI efforts, 3GPP has formed a study group to determine the long-term evolution for W-CDMA/UMTS radio access net- works and system architectures. The 3GPP standard is expected to be ready in mid- 2007, with commercial products expected around 2009. 3G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is the next version of the 3GPP-based radio standard. LTE will be based on many elements that will be included in Release 7 of the 3GPP standard, primarily OFDM and MIMO, although CDMA technology will be removed from Radio Layer 1 of LTE. The LTE and Super 3G visions are quite similar, and many industry observ- ers view them as synonymous. One interesting industry observation is that 3G air- links will continue to evolve, but, more importantly, so will the services, with one of the objectives being the ability to move away from having to select a communi- cations medium to having the communications medium chosen for us, depending on what we wish to do and where we happen to be at that moment. 4G: Wireless Broadband Despite the fact that we have not yet fully implemented 3G and 3.5G technologies, 4G (which the IEEE officially calls "3G and Beyond") is already on its way, posing a major detriment for the future of 3G. In general, a generation is defined by the technology changes over a 10- to 15-year period, so 4G refers t