Current Trends and Future of 3G Technologies

Nowadays when we think about wireless technology, we may think about getting online with Mobile broadband from a laptop on a train, or in a coffee shop. We may also think about mobile phones- increasingly enabled to get online and check cinema times for example, as well as hand-held data devices such as Blackberries, which allow you to access your email whilst travelling.All of these developments are relatively new and the technology is always growing and improving. For example, this year consumers have started to see `dongles` being marketed by mobile phone companies - allowing them to utilize technology such as WiMAX to get online anywhere, without the restrictions of lower-range WiFI wireless networking applications which may only transmit to the end of the bill payer`s garden!

Wireless was actually `born` - in a very primitive form - just after the second World War, with an extremely limited mobile phone service, which had an operator setting up the calls and only a few channels. Limited it may have been, but this `0 Generation` of wireless - if you will! - paved the way for modern wireless networking today.

After this, the first generation (1G - although no one called it such) of wireless networking arrived, which used analog systems, and focused particularly on transmitting voices without cables - think of the first mobile phones or radios. The second generation focused heavily on the commercial usage of wireless networking and digital technology. 2G standards included GPRS - (think Bluetooth and SMS texting) - and were highly regulated by European standards. Then, as demand increased and began to put pressure on the networks, an increase in network capacity and speedy data transfers were needed, along with a demand for multimedia - so 3G started to evolve, and many of the different technologies started to standardize. WiMAX is an example of 3G technology. 3G saw the humble phone suddenly become a text message service, a camera, a portable internet device, an email reader and a PDA! However, 3G has actually been a hard generation for companies to launch - mainly because of the increasing demands on bandwidth. There are also a number of competing technologies that are yet to standardize.