Although the technology behind 3G may seem complicated, the ways in which 3G will affect all of our lives are easy to imagine. Just imagine having a combined camera, videocamera, computer, stereo, and radio included in your mobile phone. Rich media information and entertainment will be at your fingertips whenever you want anywhere there is a wireless network.

Mobile communication is moving from simple voice to rich media, where we use more of our senses to intensify our experiences. But not all of this will happen at once. 3G is an evolution to a communications ideal that no one completely understands yet.

3G brings together high-speed radio access and IP-based services into one, powerful environment. The step towards IP is vital. IP is packet-based, which in simple terms, means users can be “on line” at all times, but without having to pay until they actually send or receive data. The connectionless nature of IP also makes access a lot faster: file downloads can take a few seconds and we can be connected to our corporate network with a single click.

3G introduces wideband radio communications, with access speeds of up to 2Mbit/s. Compared with 2G (GSM) and 2.5G (GPRS) mobile networks, 3G significantly boosts network capacity - so operators are able to support more users, as well as offer more sophisticated services.

The following briefly describes the evolution of 3G from 2G systems:

Family 1 (GSM):
GSM -> GPRS -> EDGE -> UMTS (aka WCDMA aka 3GSM)

Family 2 (CDMA):
IS95 (cdmaOne) -> CDMA2000 1xRTT-> CDMA2000 1xEV (EV-DO or EV-DV)

Family 3 (TDMA):
TDMA -> (will evolve into an EDGE-like technology)