There has been so much noise being made about the introduction of 3G into India, right from the battle for spectrum amongst the CDMA and GSM providers and then it changed to that of a battle between Ratan Tata and others. Ratan Tata was willing to pay upto Rs. 1,500 crores for the additional spectrum required to commence 3G services. So, I decided to pen down what 3g stands for, my views on what the operators can do with it (that’s the second article)
What is 3G?
3G stands for Third Generation of Mobile communications. The services associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer simultaneously both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloading information, exchanging email, and instant messaging). In marketing 3G services, video telephony has often been used as the killer application for 3G.
What does spectrum have to do with 3G services etc?
Since mobiles rely on the radio frequency for the communication, a spectrum is necessary for usage of mobiles and that is the reason why licenses where required in the first place to start a mobile service and it is the same case in India. You will now ask, why do they need additional spectrum when they already have spectrum to provide services since our mobile operators are providing services. This is primarily because majority of networks in India is either 2G or 2.5G. 2.5G is a stepping stone between 2G and 3G cellular wireless technologies. The term “second and a half generation” is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet switched domain in addition to the circuit switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit switched data services (HSCSD) as well.
While the terms “2G” and “3G” are officially defined, “2.5G” is not. It was invented for marketing purposes only.
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