What is 3G?
3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. It is usually used in the context of cell phones. The services associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloading information, exchanging email, and instant messaging).
In marketing 3G services, video telephony has often been used as the flag-ship killer application for 3G. A certain euphoria was created, which led to huge spectrum-licensing fees in many countries, especially in Europe, where spectrum auctions generated many billions of euros for the respective countries.
3G standards
3G technologies are an answer to the International Telecommunications Union’s IMT-2000 specification. Originally, 3G was supposed to be a single, unified, worldwide standard, but in practice, the 3G world has been split into four camps.
UMTS (W-CDMA)
FOMA
CDMA 2000
TD-SCDMA
Wideband CDMA
Source: Wikipedia
