3G

=3G= author: Shannon Frampton

3G, which standards for third generation, is another name for International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT 2000). IMT 2000 is the third generation of mobile phone standards. This means that 3G is a new protocol, a new set of rules, for mobile communication. Currently in the world most people use phones that run off of the 2B or 2.5 standards, however since the Iphone and other technologies such as the ipad have gone 3g, the standard is becoming more popular. Currently there are almost 100 million 3 G users in the world.

Part of the reason for the 3g's increased popularity is that it offers certian features that 2g and 2.5g phones do not. 3g offers wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data in places out of reach of a wireless signal. As I'm sure you can imagine this is extremely convient and gives 3g devices an edge over 2g and 2.5g. Besides those features, 3g also offers users faster high speed wireless data transfer. A 2.5G user would take between six and nine minutes to download a three minute song while a 3G user would take between 11 and 90 seconds. This makes it possible to use applications such as mobile video, secure ecommerce, location-based services, mobile gaming and audio on demand.

Japan is currently the country leading in 3G users with over 50% of subscribers using 3g. Over 10% of all subscribers in the U.S. are 3G users. 3G can also be found in Canada, Morocco, The U.K., India, South Africa and Turkey.