3G is a mobile communications standard that enables devices, such as mobile phones, to connect to the internet wirelessly.
The name 3G stands for third generation, meaning that it is the third generation of mobile telecommunications. It succeeded 2G, and it is being gradually overtaken by 4G technologies in terms of accessible regions.
Code division multiple access (CDMA) is essentially the foundation of 3G technologies. According to Qualcomm, CDMA offers increased voice capacity by several times and provides more efficient use of spectrum resources.
In addition, it increases battery life in mobile devices and has better security with CDMA encoding.
The roll out of 3G in the UK provided a massive boost to the mobile industry as it improved both reliability and UK coverage for voice calls and text messaging.
How fast is 3G?
One of the big benefits of 3G came in the form of improved internet speeds, due to its ability to carry larger amounts of data.
This improvement meant that bigger apps and mobile sites could be developed, due to loading times being shorter.
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3G is said to be able to offer download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, however, the average download speed is typically around 3Mbps.
Due to advances made in the space of mobile networks, 3G is no longer the fastest method for carrying mobile data. The newer version, 4G, is capable of much faster speeds, but that too will soon be dwarfed by the upcoming 5G.
