Wireless personal communication has existed for about a quarter century. In the 1980's analog FDMA served a small mostly North American base of wireless telephony users. The 1990's witnessed the start of widespread worldwide digital telephony and limited data service, categorized as 2 nd  Generation, employing two conflicting technologies, TDMA and CDMA. The first decade of the new century brought full wireless data and Internet connectivity with two competing 3 rd  Generation CDMA implementations: CDMA2000 and WCDMA. For the second decade beginning in 2010, early indications point to convergence upon a single 4 th  Generation high speed data technology, OFDMA, generally referred to as Mobile WiMax for which a standard 802.16e has recently been adopted. After describing this historical evolution, we shall address the challenges and opportunities of both 3 rd  and 4 th  Generation Wireless Broadband service.
['Andrew J. Viterbi']
Mobile broadband evolution: from controversy to convergence