3G Technology Guide
3G
3G is an abbreviation for third generation mobile phone technology. First rolled out into widespread commercial use in Japan 3G networks are rapidly being deployed worldwide as networks seek to earn revenue form the billions that they invested in spectrum allocation auctions for the right to operage 3G networks.
A bit of history, 1G - First generation mobile phones were analogue, based on similar technology to FM radio.
2G - There are several digital technologies that can be described as second generation mobile, by far the most prevalent outside of Notrh America or Japan is is GSM.
2.5G - When high speed data technology such as GPRS and EDGE were added to 2G, 2.5G was born. Currenlty in the UK 2.5G is the most common technology. 2.5G enabled
WAP browsing on phones, MMS messaging and higher speed downloads which made mobile content businesses selling Ring Toones us downloads which gthe success of mobile content businesses launch of the mobile Ring tone download industry.(high speed data, MMS etc.)
3G - Now and Next. Video Calls, streaming media etc. As per the service from Three in the UK
3G Technologies
The third generation of mobile phone technology, 3G, was supposed to be a single standard that would be interoperable world wide.
However once more political and economic self interest has led to fragmentation. The International Telecommunications Union's IMT-2000 specification, from which 3G has grown has been met by four different but related tecnologies:
Originally, 3G was supposed to be a single, unified, worldwide standard, but in practice, the 3G world has been split into four camps:
- UMTS (W-CDMA)
- CDMA 2000
- TD-SCDMA
- Wideband CDMA
- UMTS TDD