According to Moore's law, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles roughly once every two years. This means that high-tech devices get faster and smaller all the time, as anyone who has been following mobile phone developments will already know. There are a number of technological innovations in the pipeline that will affect broadband phone and digital TV services. Amongst the most interesting of these are the wave of next-generation mobile network technologies, including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced. The speed at which data can be transmitted on a 3G network is limited, and this prevents up-to-the-minute smartphones from being able to make the most of their internet functions. In parts of the US and Germany, LTE networks are already in place and users are already able to take advantage of download and upload speeds that rival high-speed domestic broadband connections - but in the UK, LTE technology is emerging slowly, hampered by squabbling between network providers over the available spectrum. LTE-Advanced, which is essentially an upgrade to LTE and relies on similar infrastructure, offers potential for download speeds far in excess of what most people currently experience on their domestic broadband connections. This raises some interesting questions about the future of mobile telecommunications and what will be possible in the future.LTE-Advanced, which is essentially an upgrade to LTE and relies on similar infrastructure, offers potential for download speeds far in excess of what most people currently experience on their domestic broadband connections. This raises some interesting questions about the future of mobile telecommunications and what will be possible in the future. Another interesting development of recent years is the advent of IPTV. IPTV is television transmitted through broadband connections, without the need for traditional broadcast infrastructure. Although IPTV has potential to revolutionise the way in which television is received and viewed by consumers, it has been hindered by the lack of superfast and ultrafast broadband connections available to the public. With these breakneck broadband connections becoming increasingly available, we may see IPTV take off in the coming years. Superfast broadband connections are an incredible feature of the modern telecommunications landscape. In living memory, 56.6Kbps was the fastest connection speed commonly available - but now it is possible for residents of a very limited area in the UK to subscribe to blistering 1Gbps connections. To put it into perspective, that is an increase in speed of approximately 17,000 times. These are just a handful of a wealth of promising technologies that are likely to have an impact on our future - it would be impossible to collect and list all the different things that might change the world as we know it within our lifetimes. Nevertheless, with global mobile data traffic expected to increase by a factor of 10 times in the next few years alone, it is clear that the internet and the ways in which we are able to use it will come to define this century - and shape the future for generations to come.
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