3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. It is used in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer simultaneously both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloadinginformation, exchanging email, and instant messaging). In marketing 3G services, video telephony has often been used as the killer application for 3G.3G networks are not upgrades of 2G networks and do not operate on the same frequency spectrum; rather, entirely new networks need to be built and new frequencies need to be assigned to mobile operators. Induced euphoria led to huge spectrum-licensing fees in many countries, especially in Europe, where spectrum auctions went into the billions of euros. These spectrum licensing fees which were collected years before actual 3G development, together with the enormous investments necessary to build the all-new 3G networks, financially strained a number of mobile operators, delaying 3G roll-out worldwide except in Japan and South Korea, where such spectrum licensing fees were non-existent as the priority in those countries was set on national IT infrastructure development.
The first country which introduced 3G on a large commercial scale was Japan. In 2005, about 40% of subscribers used 3G networks only, with 2G being on the way out in Japan. It was expected that during 2006 the transition from 2G to 3G would be largely completed in Japan, and upgrades to the next 3.5G stage with 3 Mbit/s data rates were underway.
The successful 3G introduction in Japan showed that video telephony was not the killer application for 3G networks after all. The real-life usage of video telephony on 3G networks was found to be a small fraction of all services. On the other hand, downloading of music found strong acceptance by customers. Music download services in Japan were pioneered by KDDI with the EZchakuuta and Chaku Uta Full services.
Technically, 3G networks are not IEEE 802.11 networks. IEEE 802.11 networks are short range, primarily internet access networks, while 3G networks are wide area cellular telephone networks which evolved to incorporate high-speed internet access and video telephony to these networks.
Features:The most significant features offered by third generation (3G) mobile technologies are the momentous capacity and broadband capabilities to support greater numbers of voice and data customers – especially in urban centres – plus higher data rates at lower incremental cost than 2G.
By using the radio spectrum in bands identified, which is provided by the ITU for Third Generation IMT-2000 mobile services, it subsequently licensed to operators. 3G uses 5 MHz channel carrier width to deliver significantly higher data rates and increased capacity compared with 2G networks.
The 5 MHz channel carrier provides optimum use of radio resources for operators who have been granted large, contiguous blocks of spectrum. On the other hand, it also helps to reduce the cost to 3G networks while being capable of providing extremely high-speed data transmission to users.
It also allows the transmission of 384kbps for mobile systems and 2Mbps for stationary systems. 3G users are expected to have greater capacity and improved spectrum efficiency, which will allow them to access global roaming between different 3G networkings.
Standard 3G:
International Telecommunications Unit (ITU): IMT-2000 consists of five radio interfaces
- W-CDMA
- CDMA2000
- CDMA2001
- TD-CDMA / TD-SCDMA
- UWC-136
- DECT+
