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For the past few years, telecommunications carriers and handset manufacturers have talked a lot about third-generation (3G) services for mobile phones. Despite all the talk, however, the companies haven't done a particularly good job of explaining what it all means; that's where we come in.
3G in Australia
For a country with a comparatively small population, Australians are taking to the latest mobile technologies with eagerness. Figures published by technology analysts IDC (seen in the graph below) suggest that the number of Australians who subscribe to 3G services will surpass those of us using the older 2G services by the end of 2008 or early into 2009.
This is in part a product of Australia's willingness to experiment with new technologies, but is also attributable to the retail environment in this country, with all the mobile carriers offering 3G services at competitive prices.
Credit: IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker
Why 3G?
The reason you will want a 3G phone is to have data transmitted to your handset faster. Downloadable content is becoming much more enticing, and our patience for downloads is becoming shorter. We want our Mobile TV to stream without pausing to buffer, and we want our new music now.
In recent times over-the-air content has been the domain of the mobile carriers. All Australian carriers provide Web portals for their customers offering wallpapers, ringtones and astrology charts, amongst other services. 2008 promises to be the year that everyone else gets on board, including manufacturers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. It's also the year we'll see a desktop-like Web experience coming to our handsets, thanks to Opera Mini, SkyFire and Firefox Mobile.
Do bear in mind though that 3G network coverage is nowhere near as extensive as 2G. So once you step outside heavily populated metro areas, it's more than likely that you're whiz-bang, mega-buck 3G handset will be utilising an existing 2G network.
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