3 Cheers To 3G!
There are folks who really don’t care about the technology that runs their mobile phones. And then, there are folks who just cannot wait for a new technology to be introduced so that they can use it. Having a mobile phone, for some, is nothing more than being able to make and receive telephone calls and send and receive text messages - okay, let’s add those pictures, video clips, mp3 songs etc. (That’s known as “MMS” which stands for Multimedia Messaging Service as opposed to “SMS” which stands for Short Messaging Service, which allows you to send and receive text messages). And of course, you can access the internet using your mobile phone. Have you ever stopped to figure out what is the technology your mobile phone runs on? I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t spared a thought to think about this. I suppose, you will nod your head in agreement if I say it’s a good thing to know a little bit about how it all works. These days, we hear a lot about “3G” - let’s find out what that means first!
Introduction To The Previous Gs
Before I tell you more about 3G, let me quickly introduce you to the two technologies that came before it - 2G and 1G. The “G” before the number is used to indicate which “generation” of mobile phone technology your phone is using. So, 1G would mean first generation, 2G would mean second generation and 3G, obviously would indicate third generation. The 1G technology was used in the 1980s where mobile phones used AMPS networks which were based on FDMA. “AMPS” stands for Advanced Mobile Phone Services and “FDMA” stands for Frequency Division Multiplexing Access. Okay, I’m not going to make you study all the terminologies but will just add one more detail - the first generation of mobile services used the channels provided by the 800 MHz band.
The 2G mobile phone services came along in the 1990s. The second generation technology provided two different standards. The first was known as “CDMA” which stood for ‘Code Division Multiple Access’ and the second standard came to be known as “GSM” which in turn, stood for ‘Global System for Mobile Communication’. CDMA standards gained a lot of popularity in North America whereas in many other countries in the world, GSM became the choice for mobile phone service providers. 2G standards are being used currently and use digital communication, unlike 1G which used the analog communication standards. This technology used bands between 900 and 1800 MHz. Now, let’s take a look at what 3G has to offer to us.
Advantages Of 3G Technology
As it happens with every new technology, the Third Generation technology provides many ‘upgrades’ to existing options, thus providing many other new advantages. If you want to know what is that one thing that sets apart 3G technology from its predecessors, I should say, it’s just the speed of data transfer. This new generation technology offers greater speed in accessing a variety of features - for example, you can watch live TV on your mobile phones, access the internet faster, send and receive emails and download stuff a lot more faster then you could do using your old 2G phones! How fast is “much faster”? Well, according to rough estimates, it could be up to 40 times faster! How about that? Hey, I forgot to tell you one more thing - you can make and receive video calls as well! Imagine how it would be if you could actually see the person you were talking to. It would change our lives in so many ways.
The third generation mobile phone technology allows you to send and receive full motion videos in real-time, among other features that we had discussed previously. One of the main goals for this technology was the dream to have global connectivity across all networks in the world. In other words, allow for “Global Roaming” where you will find that all networks across continents use the same technology. This third generation mobile technology uses standards that fall under ITU and are also known as IMT2000. ITU stands for International Telecommunication Union. This technology also allows the mobile phone service providers to provide a wide range of more enhanced services and uses the bandwidth provided to it more efficiently. 3G is also known as mobile broadband because of the high speed it offers.
History Of 3G Mobile Services
Did you know the first third generation services provided commercially in the world was by a company called NTT DoCoMo in Japan? That was sometime in the later part of 2001. Three months later, i.e. in January 2002, it was followed by SK Telecom, in South Korea.
3G Mobile Phones:
One of the best mobile handsets to showcase the capabilities of the third generation technology is Apple’s Iphone. This phone from Apple comes in two variations - 3G and 3G S. The difference between the two models is not just the price tag. You can get one of the former models for as little as $99. The cost of the latter model starts at around $199 or $299, depending upon whether you have decided to go in for the 16GB model or the 32GB model. You will be surprised at the speed with which you can do thing with these phones. Launching web applications, browsing the internet, opening emails happen in no time. Of course, according to Apple, the 3G S model works twice as fast as its predecessor.
Apart from that, you can use your Apple 3G S Iphone to shoot high quality videos, edit them and share them. Considering the fact that this phone comes with a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, you can be assured of great pictures and videos. You have the option of shooting your photographs or videos either in landscape mode or portrait mode. Another great feature offered in this phone is voice recognition. How about a built-in Compass and Copy, Cut and Paste options? Forget those short “text only” messages. Now send messages that contain text, audio and video. How about watching live online videos? Well, this phone allows that option as well.
Apart from Apple, many major companies have started selling 3G handsets. The - major ones are Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Blackberry. All these companies also offer the “pay as you go option”. This is for the more cautious user who does not want to exceed a certain weekly or monthly budget for telephone calls. It allows you to buy a certain amount of talk time or airtime and stretch it as long as you possibly can. Even if you run out of airtime, you can get it recharged whenever you feel like or whenever you can. Makes life a lot easier, doesn’t it?
While we have been talking about 3G technology and the mobile phones that support this technology, the world has moved ahead and embraced a new technology called 4G! It is beyond the scope of this discussion to go deeper into the fourth generation technology, so we’ll just leave it alone for now. One more thing we need to bear in mind is that mobile phones are no longer a luxury. They have become more of an “essentiality”. You can even call them an unavoidable necessity too!