Mobile Phone Technologies

1G Technology

• The development of 1G mobile phones took place in the late 1970s.
• The 1G mobile devices sent only the “analogue voice information” via amplitude modulation (AM), which varies the amplitude of the carrier signal, and frequency modulation (FM), which changes the Frequency of the career signal.
• In electronics, the analog signal devices were followed by Analog to Digital convertors.
• The most important 1G system were

1. Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS)
2. Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT)
3. Total Access Telephone System (TACS).

• The devices of the 1G included the Cordless Phone, Paging Systems, Private Mobile Radio, Some primitive mobile systems as mentioned above.

2G Technology

• The 2G phase began in the 1990s and much of this technology is still in use. The 2G cell phone features digital voice encoding.
• Examples include CDMA and GSM.

• Since its inception, 2G technologies have steadily improved, with increased bandwidth, packet routing, and the introduction of multimedia.
• GSM is most popular standard for mobile telephony systems spread in more than 200 countries / territories. GSM is a cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity.
• The worldwide presence of GSM means that subscribers can use their phones throughout the world, enabled by international roaming arrangements between mobile network operators.
• GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges and most 2G GSM networks operate in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands.
• GSM provides the voice and limited data services and uses the digital modulation for improved audio quality. So this was the beginning of the SMS. The rate was 10 Kbps/user.

2.5G Technology

• The GPS was succeeded with GPRS i.e. General Packet Radio Service. This is called 2.5G. This enhanced the data transmission capacity of the GSM and added the packet switched capabilities to the existing mobile telephony.
• So now the systems were able to send emails and Graphics rich data as a higher speed. 2.5 G or GPRS set the preparatory stage for the 3G
• Applications in 2.5 G are : Digital voice and limited data

3G Technology

• 3G, 4G and 5 G are the generic names for a set of mobile technologies. These use a host of high-tech infrastructure networks, handsets, base stations, switches and other equipment to allow mobile phones to offer broadband wireless Internet access, data, video, live TV and CD-quality music services.
• The 3G wireless networks use technologies such as

1. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS);
2. Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE);
3. UMTS Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and
4. High Speed Downlink Packet Access.

• The 3G technology is capable of transferring data at theoretical top speed of just 7.2Mbps.

4G Technology

• 4G is the short term for fourth-generation; it is a wireless data transmission network.
• The data transfer speeds here are four time that of 3G making IPTV and interactive gaming a reality on mobile phones.
• All this will make the mobile phone much like a digital Swiss Knife: a single wireless device for all our needs.
• The technology uses Carriers that use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) instead of time division multiple access (TDMA) or code division multiple access (CDMA).

5G Technology

• Millimeter wave spectrum: The 5G networks will operate in the millimeter wave spectrum (30-300 GHz) which have the advantage of sending large amounts of data at very high speeds because the frequency is so high, it experiences little interference from surrounding signals.
• Upgraded LTE: 5G is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
• Internet speed: In the high-band spectrum of 5G, internet speeds have been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second) as compared to the maximum internet data speed in 4G recorded at 1 Gbps.
• 5G network speeds should have a peak data rate of 20 Gb/s for the downlink and 10 Gb/s for the uplink.
• Bands in 5G: 5G mainly work in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
• Low band spectrum: It has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange however the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
• Mid-band spectrum: It offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
• High-band spectrum: It has the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
• Applications: High-Speed mobile network, Entertainment and multimedia, Internet of Things, Smart cities, Smart farming, Telemedicine services, Controlling of critical infrastructure and vehicles and Industrial applications.

What is in the news?

• The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) gave permission to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to conduct trials for the use and application of 5G technology.
• This formally leaves out Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE from the 5G race in India.
• The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd. and MTNL. These TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers, which are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.
• In addition, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd. will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology.
• The duration of the trials is for six months, which includes a time period of two months for the procurement and setting up of the equipment.
• “The permissions have been given by DoT as per the priorities and technology partners identified by the TSPs themselves,” it stated.
• Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also, in addition to urban settings, so that the benefit of 5G technology proliferates across the country and is not confined to the urban areas, the statement said.