iPhone Users Guide to 3G

Glenn Fleishman of MacWorld made an in-depth explanation of 3G. So what the heck is 3G? beyond its abbreviation expansion to “third generation.” A 3G cellular telephone network offers something akin to wired broadband while away from a wire, whether you’re anchored to a table, walking, or traveling at driving or train speeds. The 3G part refers to the evolution of the cell telephone network.

First-generation (1G) networks were all analog. If you’re too young to remember the giant bricks of phones—which at one point required shoulder-harness cases, even—you might laugh to think of minutes, not hours of talk time, poor reception, and very crackly speech. 1G networks could handle very low-speed data on a good day.

Second-generation (2G) networks were all digital, but were developed just early enough that the Internet wasn’t part of the thinking. 2G networks weren’t optimized to move data around, just to reduce the network capacity needed to carry voice packets. Squeezing analog voice into data allowed networks to carry an order of magnitude more calls, which meant much more money in the days before unlimited plans of any kind.

2G networks can carry data, though. The CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology that drives Sprint and Verizon Wireless’s networks—and which is used in few other countries—offers dial-up modem speeds with 1xRTT, the slowest CDMA data standard. GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) networks offer both GSM (data transfer speeds of 9,600 to 1,4400 bps) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Services, up to dial-up modem speeds).

This brings us to 3G. 3G was designed to deliver data as part of its very nature. It’s optimized to carry bits that may or may not be voice bits. Verizon and Sprint chose a standard on the CDMA path called EVDO (Evolution Data Only). So far, it’s gone through two revisions, from Rev. 0 (zero) to Rev. A. Rev. A is deployed almost everywhere that has 3G service on both networks. Read More

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