Many of the new phones being offered by the big carriers are being advertised as being “3G” ready. The average mobile phone consumer often will not know what 3G is or why it’s important to them. To be a better informed consumer lets investigate exactly what 3G is.

What Is It?

3G stands for Third Generation and refers to the third generation of technology in the mobile industry. 3G follows 1G and 2G technology.

1G

The first real cell phones are considered to be 1G (First Generation). The networks for these early cell phones used analog signals. The phones used on the networks were big and clunky, with no abilities aside from voice.

2G

The technology categorized as 1G was in place up until the early 1990′s, when it was then replaced by the 2G technology features. With 2G came a break away from the analog signals and a move towards the digital spectrum. 2G brought with it the introduction to providing multimedia content and increased bandwidth. A lot of the technologies classified as 2G are still being used in cell phones today.

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