Mobile phone generations

Mobile phone development over the last twenty years is commonly split into generations.

The first version of a mobile radio telephone being used in 1924.

0G – Pre-mobile phones

This refers to pre-cellular mobile phone technology, such as radio telephones and the Autoradiopuhelin (ARP) mobile network that was launched in Finland in 1971.

1G – First Generation

First generation mobile networks includes the analogue phone systems introduced in Europe, the US and Australia in the 1980s.

The mobile handsets used on 1G networks were affectionately known as ‘Bricks’ due to their weight and size.

2G – Second Generation

Second generation mobile networks use digital transmission rather than analogue.

This means the phone handsets can be much smaller while the network can carry many more phone calls at the same time. For example, a TDMA-based digital system can carry three times as many calls as an analogue system, so each cell has about 168 channels available instead of just 56.

2G systems and phones were introduced in the 1990s. They overlapped to some extent with 1G technology, which was quickly phased out.

Many mobile networks around the world today still use 2G technologies.

2.5G – Second and a half Generation

This was developed as a stepping-stone to 3G mobile technologies. 2.5G networks use much of the same infrastructure as 2G networks. However, it uses ‘packet-switching’, like the method used to send information over the internet rather than ‘circuit-switching’, the method used in older phone services to make and receive phone calls.

By using packet-switching, these networks are able to send and receive internet data, including emails and web pages. However, these services are much faster on 3G networks.

3G – Third Generation

Third-generation mobile technology allows broadband-speed access to the internet and email as well as other ‘data’ services such as video telephony and viewing television programs on mobile phones.

With 3G technologies, mobile phones are coming closer to being a mini-laptop computer, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or handheld entertainment centre than simply devices to make and receive phone calls.

4G – Fourth Generation

Still largely in the laboratory, 4G is the next generation of mobile technology. Researchers are experimenting with providing internet access from mobile handsets at up to 100Mbps while moving or 1Gbps while stationary. Compared to the broadband internet access possible today from ADSL (up to 1.5Mbps), this is very fast indeed.

It’s expected that 4G technology will allow high quality video-on-demand to be delivered to people on their mobile phones as well as other high bandwidth services.

The first 4G network is unlikely to be introduced before 2010 at the earliest.