3G Revolution in Mobile Technology

Gradually technology evolved and brings revolutionary changes in mobile phone technology. One of them is 3G technology. 3G came along with support increased data needs. 3G stands for "third generation" -- this makes analog cellular technology generation one and digital/PCS generation two. 3G technology is intended for the true multimedia cell phone -- typically called smart phones and features increased bandwidth and transfer rates to accommodate Web-based applications and phone-based audio and video files.

3G technology comprises several cellular access technologies. Common ones include:

v  CDMA2000 - based on 2G Code Division Multiple Access

v  WCDMA (UMTS) - Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

v  TD-SCDMA - Time-division Synchronous Code-division Multiple Access

3G networks have potential transfer speeds of up to 3 Mbps (about 15 seconds to download a 3-minute MP3 song). For comparison, the fastest 2G phones can achieve up to 144Kbps (about 8 minutes to download a 3-minute song). 3G's high data rates are ideal for downloading information from the Internet and sending and receiving large, multimedia files. 3G phones are like mini-laptops and can accommodate broadband applications like video conferencing, receiving streaming video from the Web, sending and receiving faxes and instantly downloading e-mail messages with attachments.

3G is a cell phone network protocol. Click here to learn about network protocols for smart phones.