CNET Australia's quick guide to 3G

By CNET staff on 14 April 2008

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Types of 3G

Here's a quick overview of the two main flavours of 3G (for a detailed explanation of the terms below, check out our glossary):
  1. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service), which uses W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) as its underlying standard
  2. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimised), which brings 3G speeds to CDMA networks.

In Australia, the different mobile carriers use variations of the W-CDMA technology. Recently many of our 3G networks have been upgraded to include high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). This increases the theoretical maximum download bandwidth for customers by ten fold, from 384Kbps to 3.6Mbps. HSDPA is commonly referred to as "3.5G".

The confusion sets in with Telstra's Next G network, however. It, like its competitors, uses W-CDMA technology, however Next G runs at frequency of 850MHz, instead of the more common 2100MHz. With various other differences in its technology, Telstra is able to offer customers up to 21Mbps downlink speeds, while the competition offers up to 7.2Mbps.

The next generation of mobile technology is looking very exciting, even if calling it 4G seems predictable and boring. Long term evolution (LTE) is the name given to experimental technology seen as the obvious successor to HSPA. The term 4G refers to new mobile broadband standards which exceed 100Mbps, however, experiments in LTE to date have yielded much faster results, some in the vicinity of 1Gbps.

TOP ^

Services and speeds

  Technology Data speed Features
 1G  AMPS n/a Analog; voice only
 2G  GSM
CDMA
iDen		 Less than 20Kbps Voice; SMS; conference calls; caller ID; push to talk
 2.5G  GPRS
1xRTT		 30Kbps to 90Kbps As per 2G plus MMS; images; Web browsing; short audio/video clips; games, applications, and ring tone downloads
 3G  W-CDMA
1xEV-DO		 144Kbps to 600Kbps As per 2.5G plus full-motion video; streaming music; 3D gaming; faster Web browsing
 3.5G  HSDPA/W-CDMA
1x EV-DO Rev. A/B
TD-SCDMA (China)
 384Kbps to 21Mbps As per 3G plus on-demand video; videoconferencing
 4G and beyond  LTE
WiMax
WiBro
 30Mbps to 1Gbps As per 3.5G plus high-quality streaming video;
high-quality videoconferencing; Voice-over-IP telephony

Note: The table above refers to several technologies that are not available in Australia. In the US, CDMA networks are common because of the greater distances the signal can travel. TD-SCDMA is a standard created and used solely in China. The official reasoning for independent technology is to lessen China's dependence on Western technologies, but it's more likely to avoid paying leases on certain patents.

Topics: mobile, coverage, 3g, optus, video, 3, service, phone, hutchison, vodafone, telstra, plans

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Comments (15)

  • s commented on 30/07/2009 18:05 Report abuse

    I was in warwick qld and i got better coverage on the yes g 900mhz than in brisbane with optus 2100mhz 3g and i woudn't be the first person to say this is to update towers in the major citys to run 2100mhz/900mhz on the same tower or use all the 900mhz frequencys on the network for umts and use 1800mhz for gsmand if vodafone ran 2100mhz/900mhz side by side i would switch to vodafone and it would help in the peek times of the day and it would be interstring if telstra went to 850mhz/900mhz side by side for next g and use 1800mhz for gsm and it would help travelers with roaming into australia on there phones

  • ay-non-nee-mouse commented on 22/04/2009 15:05 Report abuse

    Please could someone tell me how 3G hsa improved on 2G technology - project

  • quietachievers commented on 12/01/2009 18:56 Report abuse

    Mobile rollouts. Its full of contradictions. Different perspectives exist depending on where you sit. I don't want to bore you with too much info but to cover a few they are 1) the frequency spectrum each Telco purchased at huge cost from the govt sets boundaries. eg just like free to air TV ch10 cant transmit on ch 7 frequency. 2) each frequency has physics lower freq 850 or 900Mhz go further higher freqs 2100Mhz are attenuated and dont travel as far. 3) You have limits on number of customers the freq can hold in a geographical area, then you use a different freq in same area to allocate more customers. eg GSM 900 used first, then GSM1800 overlaid. 4) the planning cycle to develop an annual budget is slower than the realities in the market and what competitors do. 5) Snr mgmt have to sign off on the hundreds of millions required in the annual budgets. 6) Governance doesn't allow you to just alter the agreed objectives despite market shifts. 7) Aus population is 1/10th the USA so comparing prices is foolish. 8) there is a constant opposing tension between where the base station ought to be from engineering models and the realities of council and residents objections. 9) those realities lead to base stations costing more than planned/justifying that variation and taking longer. This is why black spots exist as well as geographical issues such as hills, buildings. The you get a vendor telling fibs about their equipment capabilities, marketing who live in a different dimension, contractors fib about their capabilities, handset supply challenges, revenue forecasts that aren't met, supply demand changes in contractor availability, weather that affect rollout schedules, record inconsistencies from previous rollouts. Thats probably enough for now as there is another 20 or so challenges. My point is that if your a customer little of the above matters so ignorance is bliss. The people doing this in each Telco are pretty amazing. We could always do better.

  • Arthur Beresford commented on 14/12/2008 22:22 Report abuse

    What company handles 3G connections and accounts
    Is it exclusive to TELSTRA

  • Moleman commented on 01/10/2008 13:46 Report abuse

    I live in a 3G zone, but am in the need of mobile internet access, not interested in today's cost though, if it was to be resonalble like the US market, I'd be very happy.

  • THECAT commented on 06/07/2008 23:41 Report abuse

    IF A PHONE IS UNLOCK TO ALL 900MHZ TO 1800MHZ WILL THIS WORK IN AUSTRALAN PERTH CBD DONT CARE ABOUT WEB ECT JUST NEED TO MAKE CALLS

  • Martin commented on 06/07/2008 16:51 Report abuse

    John: You might be better off with a 2-way that neatly fits in your flannelette shirt pocket. Technology moves on. Get over it. Clearly you like technology enough to use the internet. How about you stop whining and buy a sat phone if you're so worried about coverage, then you wouldn't have to wait for "black spots" to be filled where nobody actually lives and where taxpayers have to fund putting in a base station for idiots like you when there is no sound business case for doing so. If you don't like being remote, don't live there.

  • <a href=http://www.set-phones.net/BenQ-Siemens-EL71.html>benq-siemens el71</a> commented on 13/05/2008 00:30 Report abuse

    I always on journey for my business purpose. I want to take some info about this 3g technology for my business. In this article i found my answers. Thanks for your this great and beneficial information about 3g.

  • John commented on 30/01/2008 20:38 Report abuse

    Old analog phones worked everywhere...but some people were worried someone might listen in on thier phone calls, so we had digital forced on us. CDMA was supposed to fix all the black spots. Now we are having 3G forced upon us so some trendy people can make video calls and search the web at an inner city coffee shop...make up your minds, and remember people do live out in the bush and need phones too......

  • wwongalea commented on 25/09/2007 15:15 Report abuse

    Telstra keeps sending information on Next G phones which have no reseption where we live. Please dont contact us again until you have a phone that will work where we live B Beaumont

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