No one knows for sure what makes a 4G network different than a 3G network, except for speed….a 4G network needs to be able to download a Gig of data a second via wireless. Right now a test is under way in Cheju, South Korea to develop the first 4G Wireless Network and the Cheju Wireless Network has been written up by the New York Times.

In August, Samsung, the South Korean electronics company, gave the first public demonstration of its version of the network. One day, the company and others in the industry hope, the network will let users open a laptop anywhere and, without attaching a cable or looking for a Wi-Fi hot spot, immediately surf the Internet or download music and movies as fast as the fastest broadband.

But while Samsung and other companies like Intel and NTT DoCoMo of Japan are spending heavily in a race to control crucial aspects of this evolving new technology and to promote it as the next wave in Internet access, its future is far from certain.

Many in the industry seem split over whether the technology, known as fourth-generation wireless, or 4G, will usher in a new era of instant Internet availability or become a multibillion-dollar flop.

Links: New York Times, Wireless Report.