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3G In mobile telephony, third generation protocols support much higher data rates, measured in Mbps, intended for applications other than voice. 3G networks trials started in Japan in 2001. 3G networks starting in Europe and part of Asia/Pacific in 2002. 3G will support bandwidth hungry applications such as full motion video, video conferencing and full Internet access. In the UK, five mobile phone operators 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone were granted licences to provide 3G in 2000. All five operators have an obligation under their licences to provide 3G services to at least 80 per cent of the population by 31 December 2007.
3G-enabled devices including phones and laptops work by sending and receiving radio signals to and from base stations. Base stations link individual phones into the rest of the mobile and landline networks. The cell sizes for 3G networks are smaller than for 2G and so more base stations are required to cover the same area. 1G networks (NMT, C-Nets, AMPS, TACS) are considered to be the first analog cellular systems, which started early 1980s. There were radio telephone systems even before that.2G networks (GSM, cdmaOne, DAMPS) are the first digital cellular systems launched early 1990s. 2.5G networks (GPRS, cdma2000 1x) are the enhanced versions of 2G networks 3G networks (UMTS FDD and TDD, cdma2000 1x EVDO, cdma2000 3x, TD-SCDMA, Arib WCDMA, EDGE, IMT-2000 DECT) 4G is mainly a marketing buzzword at the moment. Some basic 4G research is being done, but no frequencies have been allocated. |
3G
sim cards are not the same as the standard sim card, 3G sims are mostly
called USIMS you can get an upgrade from your operator, unless your with
Orange, who refuse to supply them unless you buy a new phone. While 02
are happy to supply you one for free, you will need an existing telephone
number, which come with standard sims (2G)