Cellular Network Generations

 

 

Technology 1G 2G 2.5G 3G 4G
Design Began 1970 1980 1985 1990 2000
Implementation 1984 1991 1999 2002 2010
Services Analog voice Digital voice Higher capacity, packetized data

Higher capacity, broadband data

up to 2mbps

Completely IP based, speed up to hundreds

of MBs
Standards NMT, AMPS, Hicap GSM, iDEN, D_MPS GRPS, EDGE WCDMA, CDMA 2000 Single standard
Data Bandwidth 1.9 kbps 14.4 kbps 384 kbps 2 Mbps 200 Mbps
Multiplexing FDMA TDMA, CDMA TDMA, CDMA CDMA CDMA
Core Network PSTN PSTN PSTN, Packet network Packet network Internet