Wireless Master

You might be hearing this term quite often lately and especially in terms of smartphones and the like. 3G is a revolutionary technology which has hit the world a few years back and changed the way the world looks at telecommunications as well as Internet access. The small little acronym of “3G” packs in quite a punch I must say. It is actually called International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000). However, the world generally knows it as the 3rd Generation or 3G. This is again a set of standards which have been set down by the International Telecommunication Union. This also includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, CDMA2000, DECT as well as WiMAX. There are many services that this technology offers and these include wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data transfer and that too on a mobile basis. 3G is much better developed as compared to 2G and 2.5G. This is because the 3rd Generation has been able to develop the use of allowing a simultaneous use of speech as well as data services. Also the rate and speed of data transfer is higher than earlier and the current speeds that 3G offers can go up to14 Mbits per second on downlink and 5.8 Mbit per second on uplink along with HSPA+ . Thus as you can well see, it is a very advanced form of communications technology and offers people many more services and that too, at an increased efficiency. The network facilities are better improved as well.

The International Telecommunication Union has set down the standards of the 3rd Generation which is IMT-2000 to help in better growth, higher bandwidth, and have a wider range of applications as well. One of 3G's biggest competitors is GSM. This technology delivers voice and circuit switched data at a rate of speed like 14.4 kbps. However, 3G delivers packet switched data at a higher speeds and with more efficiency as well.

3G has an eventful history behind it. The first 3G network which was launched by NTT DoCoMo was in Japan and was from of the FOMA brand. This was in May 2001 and was a pre-commercial network. The first commercial launch of the network was also by NTT DoCoMo in October of the same year. The second commercial network of the 3rd generation was in South Korea by the SK Telecom company in January in 2002. In Europe, the first pre-commercial network was by Manx Telecom in the Isle of Man which was then owned by British Telecom. The first commercial network in Europe was opened by Telenor in December 2001. these were both based on the W-CDMA technology. In the United States, the first commercial 3G network was opened by Monet Mobile Networks and the second one was Verizon Wireless in October 2003. The first network has shut down but the second one is still functioning and doing really good business.