At first sight mobile communication of the third generation may seem very attractive and advantageous for everybody:
1. on the one hand users will get high quality services such as excellent
2. new revolutionary services like video calls or VoIP calls over the internet
3. sound quality
4. fast mobile internet connection
5. thus can count on getting super-profits within a short period of time
6. on the other hand the mobile operators will get access to the newest market of such services with a high level of demand
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In this article we'll try to figure out why there are so many abbreviations like 3G, UMTS, CDMA, WCDMA, EvDO, EDGE and many others denoting one simple notion – the new generation of mobile communications.
It turns out that the whole 3G family was created under ITU (International Telecommunication Union) which is one of the oldest international institutions defining standards, and, to be precise, giving recommendations in the sphere of radio and telecommunications. The organization has developed recommendations concerning the use of the frequency spectrum for the whole family of the third generation standards. These recommendations describe how the existing mobile networks are supposed to transform into third generation ones, as well as set minimum requirements for data transfer in the 3G networks - 144 kbps if the terminal is moving and up to 2 mbps if the terminal is still.
So let's find what each of the abbreviations given above means.
3G is the simplest one. It simply denotes that the system is of the third generation, irrespective of what standard or technology it uses. It's just a shorter way of saying that the network is new and allows us to transfer data at speeds higher than in the existing traditional mobile networks.
CDMA means Code Division Multiple Access which is one of the digital standards that have been used for a long time in USA, Japan and other Asian countries. The newer, third generation phase of the CDMA technology is called CDMA2000 which is one of the 3G standards widely used in the whole world. The number of subscribers communicating via this system is already more than 200 million.
UMTS stands for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System which is another 3G standard. Unlike CDMA this system is a revolutionary new system that doesn't imply the development and improvement of the existing networks but creation of absolutely new technology with a high speed of data transfer. This type of telecommunications is being widely introduced in most European countries and has turned out to be one of the most promising ones.
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access or WCDMA is a wideband mobile air interface. Although the term may seem too complicated for most people, it denotes the same technology and standard as UMTS. Sometimes WCDMA is called a newer and more advance modification of UMTS that has comparatively lower speeds of data transfer. The technology can be added to the existing GSM or networks what makes it the most advantageous new technology from the point of view of utilization of resources and global compatibility.
EvDO is a modification of the CDMA2000 technology mostly used in Asian countries. According to experts, future modifications of EvDO will enable data transfer speeds of up to 14 mbps and more. None the less, this standard is almost not used in most of the European countries.
EDGE stands for Enhanced Data for Global Evolution and is technically not a 3G standard. It is a technology enabling higher internet connection speeds in the existing GSM frequency spectrum. The speed is higher than GPRS but a lot slower than more advance 3G networks. That's why EDGE is often called 2.5G to emphasize its transitional nature.