3G Wireless Networks
3G wireless stands for third generation wireless – the next generation of wireless communications technology beyond today’s 2G digital PCS technologies and yesterday’s first-generation analog cellular networks. When available, 3G networks promise faster data transmission rates of up to 384 Kbps to wireless devices, leading to more advanced services and a better user experience (think: streaming video on your mobile phone). 3G wireless is designed for both voice and data, and will work on wireless air interfaces using UMTS, EDGE, WCDMA, and CDMA technologies.
3G has been hyped as the ultimate solution for bringing high-speed Internet access to mobile devices. But the rollout of 3G networks is proving to be slower and more complicated than expected. While 3G services are common in Japan and South Korea, 3G is available on a very minimal basis in select parts of Western Europe and the U.S.
In the meantime, wireless carriers and operators are upgrading their networks to 2.5G, a technology that is added to a 2G network to provide packet-data service. In practice, 2.5G is synonymous with the GPRS technology that has been added to GSM networks. In common use, it is also used to reference some versions of CDMA technology, namely CDMA 1xrtt.
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