3G Technology
3G or third generation mobile phone technology is governed by standards promulgated by the International Telecommunications Union or ITU. It defined 3G under the IMT-2000 standards with the sole objective of overcoming the bandwidth limitations of 2G. With HSPA software upgrades 3G can enable download speeds of up to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 5.8 Mbps. Compare that with GSM downloading speeds of no more than 14.4 kbps and you have an idea of the immense improvement in bandwidth offered by 3G networks. With 3G, you have the benefits of high bandwidth-hugging video calls as well are a host of high speed data transmissions that make it a breeze using wireless telephony for internet access.
The Road to 3G
It took some time for 2G networks to evolve into 3G, the last step requiring a total upgrade of its networks. The mobile telephony world saw at least two general upgrade that attempted to solve the bandwidth restrictions of 2G but only to some extent:
- From 2G to 2.5G was the first major evolutionary step with the use of General Packet Radio Service or GPRS capable of data speeds from 58kbps to 115kbps. When it was introduced, you could have WAP or Wireless Application Protocol and MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service on your mobile phone handset. You could get email and browsing but traffic is slow and the traditional circuit modes get your billed per minute of connection regardless of whether you use it or not.
From 2.5G to 2.75G meant going to the EDGE. That’s Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. It also goes by Enhanced GPRS and IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC). It allows improved data transmission speeds as an enhancement to the standard GSM. EDGE has a bandwidth capacity of up to 236.8 kbps with a latency of about 150 milliseconds with a theoretical maximum of 473.6 kbps on a transmission mode that uses high order time shifting. EDGE has been integrated as part of ITU’s 3G definition and maybe considered already 3G. This was first implemented in 2003 by then Cingular (AT&T) in the US.
