All you wanted to know about 3G

If all you were hearing from the past days were about “Spectrum”, “3G auctions”, etc and wondering if someone could explain what the sciences involved are, then here we are to give you details of all you wanted to know about 3G.

Let’s talk about what is spectrum in mobile technology. When we use our cell phones, our voices are transformed into a stream of zeroes and ones, which then travels hundreds of kilometres over radio waves and reach the person on the other end of the phone. This is referred to as the spectrum of waves. Now when 550 million Indians use the cell phone at the same time, then the radio waves jostle for space.

What is meant by 3G? This is the Third Generation of telephony services. The first generation was sending text over air waves, like on pagers. The second generation now is about sending both voice and SMS messages over the air. To perform all those things on the mobile that can be done on a laptop using internet comprises the 3G features. To do all that, the telecom operators need more radio waves than what they already have.

The radio waves are strictly controlled by the government. The microwaves in our kitchens, the TV programmes, military cantonments, etc use a different set of radio frequencies. Lot of spare frequency is left with radio waves dedicated for defense use being replaced with underground cable network. So, these unused radio waves would be bought by telecom operators to perform 3G operations.

The auction of 3G mobile license ended with RCom, Bharti, and Aircel bagging 13 circles each and which leaves the government with a Rs.67,710 crore revenue windfall. The revenue mop up will help the government cut its fiscal deficit to nearly 4.9% from 5.5% of GDP projected in the budget. No single operator could bag a pan-India license. Key circles Mumbai and Delhi went to Bharti, Vodafone, and RCom.

Just as India gets set to herald an era of 3G telecom markets, the world is bracing for the next generation 4G technology. Nearly 132 countries across the world already have 3G technologies in one form or the other.

Should India have bypassed 3G and leapfrogged to next-gen 4G?

4G mobile broadband services, also known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) are designed for services such as high-speed internet, multimedia services like TV broadcasting, high definition video conferencing, and even online gaming. Countries like US and Japan have started initiatives to move towards 4G technology.

Both the technologies are focussed on ramping up internet data usage but at a different speed. LTE’s speed is more than 3 times faster than wimax’s technology along with compatibility with older phone models. Compared to 3Mbps speed offered by 3G services, LTE can offer speeds up to 10 Mbps.

The telecom regulator TRAI has already floated the pre-consultation paper on 4G even as 3G slots are being auctioned. With the Indian markets being primarily led by voice services, the demand for premium services led by 3G could be hit until subscribers are game for higher value-added services.