Developments towards the "post 3G" era
Cellular networks - Evolution of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)

Since November 2004, 3GPP has also been working on the "post-G3 era". The 1990s are known for the 2nd generation of mobile radio systems with GSM; the 2000s are characterized by 3G with UMTS and its evolutions. 3GPP standardizers are studying the long-term evolution of the access network (LTE), its services and the architecture offered by the core network (SAE) for the 2010s.

At the time of writing, the LTE/SAE standard is being developed by 3GPP, which maintains a web page of major decisions [12] .