What technology is 3G?

What is 3G (third generation of mobile telephony)? 3G refers to the third generation of cellular technology that enables mobile telephony . The third-generation standard follows two earlier generations that were deployed on mobile networks and across mobile phones.

2G and 3G systems used TDMA, FDMA and CDMA as channel access schemes. However, 4G uses OFDMA and other new technologies (Single Carrier FDMA, Interleaved FDMA, and Multi-carrier CDMA ) instead of CDMA, which is used by all 3-G systems.

The 3G technology offers a maximum download rate of about 21 Megabytes per second. The 4G technology can download videos at a much faster rate, that can go as high as 1 Gigabyte per second. It utilises the packet switching technique . It utilises both the message switching as well as the packet switching techniques.