Evolution from 1G to 4G

The Telecom industry has grown far and wide from the initial days launch supporting just voice services. The 1G (first generation of wireless standards) launched in the early years of 1980s was plain analog carrying the voice signals over the air interface modulated to a carrier of 150 MHz. Some of the notable standards prevalent were AMPS, NMT, TACS etc. The backhaul was although carrying digital information. The technology was focussed on circuit switched data. The data rates provided was also very less.

The inefficiency of the analog systems made the engineers design a system conforming to a more global standard namely the GSM with the first commercial launch in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991. GSM came with attractive features at that point offering digital voice, better spectrum utilization (frequency reuse concepts first introduced) and also for the first time data services through SMS. Today GSM accounts for nearly 80 % of the voice traffic. Other variants were pushed by telecom equipment manufacturers, basically the CDMA technology patented by Qualcomm which holds market superiority in N.America.

The data services came on to be the key focus for the operators in the later stages and as part of it EDGE services were initiated (commonly dubbed as 2.5G) which paved the way for the 3G services with the core networks working with packet switched data.

The 3G services were first launched by NTT Docomo in Japan in 2001, thus being the first operator for the commercial launch of 3G services. 3G aimed at providing voice and data solutions with enhanced data rates offering broadband (2Mbps) for indoor services and limited mobility. It also provided seamless mobility throughout the world from EDGE to UMTS-HSPA technology.

Synonymous to 2.5G, beyond 3G concepts were also initiated which included mainly the HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE technologies, all of which was primarily for improved data connectivity.

The next generation cellular technology or the LTE-A or the IMT-A is currently being investigated by the 3GPP community to improve the performance, better resource utilization, reduction in capital and operational expenses by Self-organizing functionalities.

The convergence of the mobile world with Web 2.0 technology and semantic web concepts shall pave the way for an all-digital world with increased influence of wireless communications and internet playing a decisive role in the day to day life of people and also the business.