Mobile Generations – 3G

 

    • 3G (IMT-2000):

You may be wondering what are these Mobile Generations and who creates them right? The answer is International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is a body formed by the United Nations which takes care of maintaining the Telecommunication Standards worldwide.

Overview –
Japan’s NTT Docomo launched world’s first 3G network in the year 2001. With the success of 2G Mobile Technology, the Third Generation (3G) Mobile Networks and Applications have faced with lots of expectations such as Online Services at fast rate, Video Calls, Mobile TV etc.

For a moment let me focus on the killer apps of 2G like SMS (Short Messaging Service) is one such application which changed the mode of communication, using GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Technology we can download the ringtones, wallpapers.
In the similar way the Cell phone providers have invested their time and money to build new mobile services which will become the killer applications/features for 3G networks. One such app is sending and receiving the data at high speed. 3G is featured in the specifications of samsung galaxy tab a.

Features in 3G –
The development of 2.5G and 2.75G led to the transition to 3G. There are some features in 3G which are enhanced versions of its predecessors.

Features include –
› Multimedia streaming & download: We can watch YouTube videos, download latest movies and watch them right in your mobile.

› High speed mobile broadband: Surfing internet at fast rate. If i had to download a 5mb file then with 2G network it may take around 5mins but with 3G network it just takes around 20 to 30seconds, that fast is this network. But this depends on the number of users accessing that network at a time.
› Download of large email attachments: We can download large files in seconds.
› Live Mobile TV: Live News, TV serials/Shows can be seen directly in our 3G phone with the help of Live streaming videos. This feature helps us while we are traveling and don’t want to miss our favorite show.
› Secure Mobile eCommerce: Making transactions on mobile like buying and selling stuffs, Mobile Banking.

› Mobile Gaming: Game freak guys can play multi player games on this network.
› Location-Based Services: We can utilize this feature for Navigation, Tracking, Maps.
› Video calling: You can have a live video conferencing with your loved ones, official purpose. To support this feature the network should have high bandwidth and 3G network has it.

Pros & Cons –
The advantages includes the features mentioned above and in addition to that the 3G enabled devices can also be used as the Data Cards for Laptops to access the Internet with a broadband experience.
The drawbacks are –
› To support the 3G technology the Network operator should upgrade the whole base station since the bandwidth required for 3G is more. So it fetches lot of investment from the operator side
› Cell Phone users have to pay more to buy a 3G enabled phone.
› Power consumption increases.
› Voice quality remains same as 2G.

Conclusion –
Majority of the features mentioned in 3G are already available in 2.5G & 2.75G such as Browsing the Internet, Sending and receiving of the videos, e-mailing. Therefore we shouldn’t consider 3G as totally a new technology. Instead, we can say 3G is an enhanced version of the 2G technology with faster data communication rate.
Currently 3G networks are installed almost all over the world and the subscribers are increasing day by day. 3G technology is well accepted and has gained wide spread popularity in today’s world.

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