3G Cellular

Mobile telephony allowed us to talk on the move. The internet turned raw data into helpful services that people found easy to use. Now, these two technologies are converging to create third generation mobile services.

In simple terms, third generation (3G) services combine high speed mobile access with Internet Protocol (IP)-based services.

The 3G technology primarily consists of two standards, WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) and CDMA2000.

It is in the mid-1980s that the concept for IMT-2000, "International Mobile Telecommunications", was born at the ITU as the third generation system for mobile communications. After over ten years of hard work under the leadership of the ITU, a historic decision was taken in the year 2000 : unanimous approval of the technical specifications for third generation systems under the brand IMT-2000. The spectrum between 400 MHz and 3 GHz is technically suitable for the third generation. The entire telecommunication industry, including both industry and national and regional standards-setting bodies gave a concerted effort to avoiding the fragmentation that had thus far characterized the mobile market. This approval meant that for the first time, full interoperability and interworking of mobile systems could be achieved.

IMT-2000 offers the capability of providing value-added services and applications on the basis of a single standard. The system envisages a platform for distributing converged fixed, mobile, voice, data, Internet and multimedia services. One of its key visions is to provide seamless global roaming, enabling users to move across borders while using the same number and handset. IMT-2000 also aims to provide seamless delivery of services, over a number of media (satellite, fixed, etc…). It is expected that IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum speed of 2Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle. Second-generation systems only provide speeds ranging from 9.6 kbit/s to 28.8 kbit/s.

The basic 3G standards were developed largely by the private sector rather than formal standards organizations. However, the International Telecommunication Union has adopted International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000) to formally standardize the already developed 3G-wireless flavors, to let them offer a consistent set of services throughout the world, and to provide a roadmap for upgrades