China launches first 4G phone

China introduced the world's first fourth-generation mobile phone in Shanghai, to provide faster wireless data transmission, Reuters reported. Although 3G has yet to be launched in China, authorities are already promising that 4G will deliver dataspeeds of up to 100 megabytes per second, ten times 3G capacity. The new technology, which will allow TV broadcasting to be shown on moblie phones among other possibilities, will not be commercially available until at least 2010. Developed by 10 "leading domestic institutions" and known as the "FuTURE Project", 4G is estimated to have a rollout cost of US$19.3 million. Read more at the Editors' Blog.