3G is now very frequently used when referring to mobile telecom. What exactly is it and how is it different from regular mobile telecom? This is something that has passed my mind several times earlier. Here is something from my end to help you understand the topic.
This small write up should help understand this International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), commonly referred as 3G / 3rd Generation, is a set of standards for mobile telecom matching specifications by the International Telecommunication Union. This includes UMTS, CDMA2000 and also the non-mobile wireless standards DECT and WiMAX.
Technically, GSM EDGE standard satisfies the IMT-2000 specification. However, EDGE phones are typically not branded 3G. Services for 3G include video calls, wireless data and wide-area wireless voice telephone. All of these services are made possible in mobile environment by 3G.
When compared to 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of data and speech services and higher data rates. This higher data rates mean at least 200 kbit/s peak bit rate to fulfill to IMT-2000 specification. It is common with today’s 3G systems to reach up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink in real life situations.