A Description of 3G Wireless

Cell phone users are taking advantage of 3G wireless systems.

A cellular phone today can be obsolete tomorrow. The same is true for how cellular services are provided. Telecommunication companies are constantly adapting and adding new innovations to keep up with the demand of consumers.

Identification

Cellular service known as 3G, or third generation, was launched in the fall of 2001. These systems provide not only voice communication but also Internet access, email and streaming video with high data transfer rates.

History

The first cellular system was introduced in the late 1970s and provided basic analog service for voice calls only. This system is referred to 1G and was capable of data speeds of 15 kilobytes per second. By the mid 1990s, 2G emerged in the market with increased data speeds allowing limited Internet access and emailing capabilities.

Features

3G offers data transfer speeds from 300 Kbps to 1 Mbps--faster than the previous 2G speeds. These data transfer rates have allowed cell phones to become multimedia devices, enabling 3G users to download video clips and music files and access the Internet from their mobile devices. As a result, 3G systems use more bandwidth than previous voice-only wireless systems.

4G

Some cell phones and network providers offer enhanced services already with very fast data transfer rates, but a true 4G network is expected in the market place by 2012 and will provide even faster data transfer speeds and constant Wi-Fi, satellite and global wireless network connections.

References

• PCMag.com: Cellular Generations
• The History of Cell Phones