Mobile and Secure.Com

I’ve been wondering about the difference between 2G and 3G mobile phone networks recently, so I started to do a little research. It got a little confusing at first, especially if you add 2.5G, 2.75G, and 4G to the mix.

Anyway, here are my notes. Feel free to comment on them and correct me. They are based on mobile phone networks in Europe.

1G

First generation mobile phone technology using analogue radio signals routed over a circuit switched network.

2G

Second generation mobile phone technology using digital radio signals, such as GSM also over a circuit-switched network (or packet-switched for GPRS, taken from 2.5G).

3G

Third generation mobile phone technology using wide area cell phone networks, using UMTS instead of GSM, following the IMT-2000 standard.

4G

Fourth generation mobile phone technology. Several standards currently in development are competing with each other for the 4G crown.