Cell Phone Development History & Applications

Okay you’ve seen the ads on TV, but do you know what they actually mean?  Welcome to the “new 4G network” sounds great but what the heck does that mean to me?

Okay, let’s talk about the existing 3G networks first.

3G comprises several cellular access technologies. The three most common ones as of 2005 are:

• CDMA2000 – based on 2G Code Division Multiple Access
• WCDMA (UMTS) – Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
• TD-SCDMA – Time-division Synchronous Code-division Multiple Access

3G networks have potential transfer speeds of up to 3 Mbps (which is around 15 seconds to download a 3-minute MP3 song). For comparison, the fastest 2G phones can achieve up to 144Kbps (round 8 minutes to download a 3-minute song). 3G’s high data rates are ideal for downloading information from the Internet and sending and receiving large, multimedia files. 3G phones are like mini-laptops and can accommodate broadband applications like video conferencing, receiving streaming video from the Web, sending and receiving faxes and instantly downloading e-mail messages with attachments.

4G is not a technology. It is actually a set of parameters which focus on the use of IP and overall throughput that, once achieved, will enable that platform to be classified as 4G. The open-ended nature of the development cycle sets up a great battle between wireless technologies such as WiMax and post-3G cellular. The interesting thing is that each of these has easily understood advantages and disadvantages: Wireless tends to be cheaper and offer more bandwidth but has a smaller footprint, while cellular is pricier but covers more area.

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