Archive for February, 2011
In early 80’s the 1G network commercialized, since then, an upgraded generation (G) comes up after every 10 years. 3G came into being in 2000 with its specification formulated in International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT 2000) by International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Commercially it was first launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on 1 October 2001 and soon it reached South Korea. The 3G network spread to Europe and British telecom was first to launch it commercially. It reached U.S.A and Australia in 2003.

Each generation brings a larger bandwidth and hence new mobile applications. Its speed is over 2 Mbps in contrast to 400 Kbps of 2G. Its Services include Mobile TV, Video conferencing, high speed data transfer etc. Its networks also offer greater security than 2G.
In June 2007, there were 200 million 3G subscribers around the world. Out of 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide this is only 6.7%. In the countries where it was launched first like Japan and South Korea, the consumer base is around 70%. The Asian and African markets are also showing a rapid shift towards this technology. Its upgraded version is ‘3.9 G technology’ which is marketed by the companies as ‘4G’. 3G has not yet captured the world markets like its predecessors did and till now an exact ‘4G’ hasn’t arrived. Based on this we can safely say that 3G still has a long way to go.