2g history

2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja(now part of Elisa Oyj) in 1991.
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Three primary benefits of 2G networks over their predecessors were that phone

conversations were digitally encrypted; 2G systems were significantly more efficient on the spectrum allowing for far greater mobile phone penetration levels; and 2G introduced data services for mobile, starting with SMS text messages. After 2G was launched, the previous mobile telephone systems were retrospectively dubbed 1G. While radio signals on 1G networks are analog, radio signals on 2G networks are digital. Both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system. 2G has been superseded by newer technologies such as 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G, and 4G; however, 2G networks are still used in many parts of the world.

2G technologies
2G technologies can be divided into TDMA-based and CDMA-based standards depending on the type of multiplexing used. The main 2G standards are: GSM (TDMA-based), originally from Europe but used in almost all countries on all six inhabited continents. Today accounts for over 80% of all subscribers around the world. Over 60 GSM operators are also using CDMA2000 in the 450 MHz frequency band (CDMA450).
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IS-95 aka cdmaOne (CDMA-based, commonly referred as simply CDMA in the US), used in the Americas and parts of Asia. Today accounts for about 17% of all subscribers globally. Over a dozen CDMA operators have migrated to GSM including operators in Mexico, India, Australia and South Korea.

PDC (TDMA-based), used exclusively in Japan iDEN (TDMA-based), proprietary network used by Nextel in the United States and Telus Mobility in Canada

IS-136 a.k.a. D-AMPS (TDMA-based, commonly referred as simply 'TDMA' in the US), was once prevalent in the Americas but most have migrated to GSM.

2G services are frequently referred as Personal Communications Service, or PCS, in the United States.

Capacities, advantages, and disadvantages

Capacity
Using digital signals between the handsets and the towers increases system capacity in two key ways: Digital voice data can be compressed and multiplexed much more effectively than analog voice encodings through the use of various codecs, allowing more calls to be packed into the same amount of radio bandwidth. The digital systems were designed to emit less radio power from the handsets. This meant that cells could be smaller, so more cells could be placed in the same amount of space. This was also made possible by cell towers and related equipment getting less expensive.

Advantages
The lower power emissions helped address health concerns. Going all-digital allowed for the introduction of digital data services, such as SMS and email. Greatly reduced fraud. With analog systems it was possible to have two or more "cloned" handsets that had the same phone number. Enhanced privacy. A key digital advantage not often mentioned is that digital cellular calls are much harder to eavesdrop on by use of radio scanners. While the security algorithms used have proved not to be as secure as initially advertised, 2G phones are immensely more private than 1G phones, which have no protection against eavesdropping.

Disadvantages
In less populous areas, the weaker digital signal may not be sufficient to reach a cell tower. This tends to be a particular problem on 2G systems deployed on higher frequencies, but is mostly not a problem on 2G systems deployed on lower frequencies. National regulations differ greatly among countries which dictate where 2G can be deployed. Analog has a smooth decay curve, digital a jagged steppy one. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Under good conditions, digital will sound better. Under slightly worse conditions, analog will experience static, while digital has occasional dropouts. As conditions worsen, though, digital will start to completely fail, by dropping calls or being unintelligible, while analog slowly gets worse, generally holding a call longer and allowing at least a few words to get through. While digital calls tend to be free of static and background noise, the lossy compression used by the codecs takes a toll; the range of sound that they convey is reduced. You will hear less of the tonality of someone's voice talking on a digital cellphone, but you will hear it more clearly.

Evolution
2G networks were built mainly for voice services and slow data transmission.

Some protocols, such as EDGE for GSM and 1x-RTT for CDMA2000, are defined as "3G" services (because they are defined in IMT-2000 specification documents), but are considered by the general public to be 2.5G or 2.75G services because they are several times slower than present-day 3G services.

2.5G (GPRS)
2.5G ("second and a half generation is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packetswitched domain in addition to the circuit-switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit-switched data services (HSCSD) as well. The first major step in the evolution of GSM networks to 3G occurred with the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). CDMA2000 networks similarly evolved through the introduction of1xRTT. The combination of these capabilities came to be known as 2.5G. GPRS could provide data rates from 56 kbit/s up to 115 kbit/s. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time, independent of whether the user actually is utilizing the capacity or is in an idle state. 1xRTT supports bi-directional (up and downlink) peak data rates up to 153.6 kbit/s, delivering an average user data throughput of 80-100 kbit/s in commercial networks. MMS services, as well as Internet access.
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It can also be used for WAP, SMS &

2.75G (EDGE)
GPRS1 networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States. EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family and it is an upgrade that provides a potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS networks. The specification achieves higher data-rates (up to 236.8 kbit/s) by switching to more sophisticated methods of coding (8PSK), within existing GSM timeslots.

DEVELOPMENT of 2G TO 4G
One of the key features of the global communications industry is the rapidity at which technological innovations are evolving with the attendant implications for service delivery efficiency across networks and other communication platforms on a worldwide scale. The journey from the analogue-powered telecommunications era has been rather fast and astoundingly remarkable as experts continue to explore opportunities for greater communication possibilities as soon as new technologies are developed and released into the increasingly dynamic global telecommunications market. Right from 1991, although was first developed in the 1980s through a pan-European initiative, involving the European Commission, telecommunications operators and equipment manufacturers, when the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication made its debut, the industry has evolved over the years as the collective desire for service efficiency and full interoperability and interworking of mobile systems becomes the major focus of investors, regulators and users of telecommunication services globally. The GSM, otherwise called the 2G (second generation), is the first step towards the digital wireless communication over the old analog mobile communication technology standard that was introduced to address the sundry service delivery or expansion challenges that had hallmarked the usage of the analogue technology for years. In addition to the introduction of the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) which helped to establish a more secured and clear communication and has been globally adopted, the 2G is run on multiple techniques including, but mainly on the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), which is the digital enhancement of the analogue AMPS technology and FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access). The technology allows many subscribers calls at a given time as well as a cell concept with each cell responsible for covering a small area. Its spectrum utilisation falls into several bands like GSM 900 and GSM 1800 (DCS) used in areas like Asia, Europe, amongst others and GSM 850 and GSM 1900 used mainly in USA and Canada. The bandwidth of the channel allocated per user is 200kHz and the GSM air interface data rate is 270kbps The 2G is a technological innovation that was developed to fill the service delivery gap in the 1G (first generation) analogue technology and provide additional mileage to telecommunication service users in some areas. For instance, in 1G, narrow band analogue wireless network is used, which facilitates voice calls and text messages through circuit switching while the 2G uses Narrow Band Wireless Digital Network that comes with better clarity to the conversation.

Although both the 1G and 2G deal with voice calls and have to utilize the maximum bandwidth as well as a limited till sending messages, the greatest disadvantage of 1G is that its services are limited to a geo-political environment whereas 2G, in addition to its cutting edge benefits of improved sound quality, better security, and higher total capacity, also allows the roaming facility which enables users to connect to users on a semi-global basis. After about 10 years of the 2G experience, the concept for IMT-2000, ?International Mobile Telecommunications ?, was introduced under the leadership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which again formed the fulcrum of the 3G system for mobile communications. By a unanimous approval of the technical specifications for third generation systems under the brand IMT-2000, stakeholders in the telecommunication sector, which included industry and national and regional standards-setting bodies, who were determined to tackle the problem of fragmentation that had characterized the mobile market prior 2000, approved for the first time, full interoperability and interworking of mobile systems by adopting the IMT -2000 concept. One of its key visions is to provide seamless global roaming, enabling users to move across borders while using the same number and handset and also provide higher transmission rates of a minimum speed of 2Megabit per second (kbit/s) for stationary or walking users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle, amongst other innovative capacities. 2G provides speeds ranging from 9.6 kbit/s to 28.8 kbit/s. Specifically, the IMT-2000 which was later known as 3G offers the capability of providing value-added services and applications on the basis of a single standard while also envisaging a platform for distributing converged fixed, mobile, voice, data, Internet and multimedia services. In 3G, the Wide Brand Wireless Network is used which increases voice clarity through Circuit Switching while data are sent through the Packet Switching technology. The new mobile technology signifies remarkable improvements over the 2G with enhanced technical capacities for service delivery. For instance, whereas 2G air interface data rates are not enough to provide high quality multimedia applications through mobile phones, the 3G which allows a minimum of 2Mbps downlink in stationary mobile and 384Kbps for moving subscribers in downlink was released to pave way for the next generation standard. The 3G data rates allow applications like video calls, high speed internet, multimedia applications, video streaming, video conferencing, and location-based services on mobile phones. Similarly, while 2G uses TDMA and FDMA for multiple access technology, the 3G utilizes variations of CDMA technology like WCDMA, CDMA2000, CDA2000 1X EV-DO. In addition, A5 ciphering algorithm is used in 2G while a more secured KASUMI encryption is used in 3G mobile communication.

In real terms, what the migration from 2G to 3G translates to is that some of the problems of flexibility and interoperability that characterised the era of the 2G were addressed with the introduction or launching of the 3G in the market. One of the key gains of the move is service delivery efficiency and cost-effective communications in the mobile market. In addition, the 3G gives offers voice and also allows for fast communication, Internet, Multi Media Messaging Service (MMS), 3D gaming, Mobile T.V, video conferencing, video calls, multi-gaming, amongst others. As the drive for technological advancement increases, experts? exploration of the scientific fields further has again led to the evolving 4G standard or what is now called the Long Term Evolution (LTE) as a new option in voice and data communications technology in a market that continues to evolvein supersonic innovations. LTE, which is a project of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and a standard in mobile phone technology tree that produced the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA network technologies, does not fully comply with the IMT Advanced 4G requirements but is designed to succeed both CDMA2000 and GSM. The pre-4G standard is a step toward LTE Advanced which is a 4G radio technology designed to improve broadband data on telephone networks at higher capacity and speed. Just as was the case with the 3G standard - IMT-2000 - , the ITU has taken ownership of 4G, bundling it into a specification known as IMT-Advanced. By its specification, the ITU calls for 4G technologies to deliver downlink speeds of 1Gbps when stationary and 100Mbps when mobile, roughly 500-fold and 250-fold improvements over IMT-2000, respectively. Experts see the 4G as a major leap in industry?s efforts because it is more cost-effective to plant a single 4G tower that can cover several kilometres than using fibre optics for the same purpose. However, even when there are prospects that the ITU specifications might be met in the near future, realities in the industry today clearly show that WiMAX and LTE have not fully met the ITU specifications but only make use of a newer, extremely efficient multiplexing scheme called orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA, as opposed to the older CDMA or TDMA. For instance, both WiMAX and LTE lack a dedicated voice network, as their spectrum is totally committed to data services, which means that voice calls would be treated as VoIP (not unlike Skype or Vonage). Where WiMAX and LTE fall short, particularly in speed with WiMAX?s highest at around 40Mbps and LTE around100Mbps theoretically while realworld speeds on commercial networks so far have tended to range between around 4Mbps and 30Mbps. Although new advances in WiMAX 2 and LTE-Advanced offer better prospects in speed and capacity the journey to meeting the ITU specifications appears still far as production networks that make use of them are yet to be developed. Emerging developments,

including T-Mobile USA?s decision late last year to start branding its HSPA+ upgrade as ?4G? and efforts by AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and MetroPCS, amongst other firms?, indicate that the roadmap to meeting the ITU target may be gradually emerging. For instance, T-Mobile USA?s move makes some sense as experts believe that the 3G technology path will ultimately scale to speeds that surpass what LTE can achieve today, eventually coming within spitting distance of IMTAdvanced. At the domestic level, many of the telecom companies are already bracing the challenges of the various innovations with a view to exploring them for benefits of individual and corporate customers but also shoring up their profitability base as the market continues to respond to the emerging standards. For instance, Globacom, Starcomms, MTN, Etisalat, Airtel are already preparing for the rollout of the 4G (LTE) standard. In all these innovative strides that have shifted the global focus to the yetto- be- fullydeveloped 4G standard, the key gains are that the standard will not only address the perceived lapses of the 3G in terms of speed, broadband data capacity and cost of service but also being a radio technology offer a more easily deployable communication platform to both urban and rural dwellers.