Mobile Phones: Full Timeline and Technologies

Hello guys! This is my first post. Really glad!
Obviously, we are addicted to a small device called 'mobile phone'. It's becoming an indivisible part of our life. We can't stay longer than an hour without our mobile, checking SMS, emails. This mobile industry has rapidly grown in last decade especially considering in India. Right now, I am going to explain you about all G's of mobiles called generations.

0G: Radiophones
The trend of mobile phones begins with the early efforts to develop 2-way radio duplexes early in 1950's. The first mobile was a radio telephone also called as 0G phone.
The picture shows the first 0G radiophone. This was accessible with a system called 'MTS' (Mobile Telephone System).
This was a very heavy handset and costly to maintain and there was no reliability of connection.

1G: Analog Phones
Further with the advancement in electronics and telecommunication technologies, the Bell labs in America developed new mobile handset with analog system. This phone arrived in early 1980's

The picture shows a handy 1G analog phone with aerial, keypad and a speaker. This was accessible with a system called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System). AMPS was the first cellular technology. This was a first 'cellphone' which was accessible in hexagonal parts of particular area called 'cells'. The AMPS cellular system was operable within 800 MHz frequency band. The main drawback of this system was that this phone was too heavy to carry on the go and was fairly unreliable due to errors occurring in analog system. But, AMPS system was becoming so popular.
After 1990, there was need to develop new mobile system for more reliability, simple design, cheapness and data. So, development of digital phones began.









2G: Digital Phones
After the development of digital phones in early 1990's, the system was developed to make the operation of these phones simple, reliable and more secure. This system was GSM ('Global System for Mobile Communication'. The technology used for operation of digital phones is TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). GSM is global TDMA.
GSM progressed rapidly all over the world in 212 contries and is now used by approximately 2 billion people increasing everyday. The main feature of GSM is that it provides uninterrupted and secure connection between 2 users connected in GSM anywhere in the world. One of the key feature of GSM in SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). SIM is nothing but a smart card containing user's subscribing information and phonebook. With SIM people can switch between operators without changing their handset. GSM service was developed especially to carry voice and not data.
The GSM handset converts the voice pulses into digital signals very sharply. This process is called as 'digitization'. Digitization reduces errors in signals and gives the clear voice.
The technology alternative to TDMA/GSM is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
In mid 1990's with the growth of internet, there was a need across people to access the internet on the go. So, a new system called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) was developed as an extension of GSM. This service is considered as 2.5G. This service is now available in over 200 contries. This service provides 'always on' connection to the internet with slow speed of 56-114 kbps.
Further with development of mobile hardware and software, there was a demand of faster data transfer to mobile phones. So, GPRS service was enhanced. This enhanced service is called as EDGE (Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution). It is considered as 2.75G. It also provides same features of GPRS but with enhanced data rates upto 236 kbps. It is moderate speed and also allows PCs and laptops for mobile internet connectivity with good browsing and fair downloading speed.
Right now in India, the charge of GPRS/EDGE service is very low. Averagely Rs. 100 per month with rich data bundle upto 5GB.

3G: Smart Phones

After 2000, the data needs of the world increased with enhancement of features of internet such as video streaming, conferencing, downloading etc. So, GPRS/EDGE was so poor to carry this much large bandwidth. So in Japan, NTT Docomo developed a technology carry this much data and good bandwidth. This technology was called WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). It provides of data with greater bandwidth than EDGE, 384 kbps which is good but not so much better. WCDMA is today maintained by UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System). In China, an alternative technology called TD-SCDMA (Time Division- Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is used. WCDMA is also called as core 3G network.
In mid-2000's a new technology which is usually a software update to WCDMA core network was arrived. This is called as HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). HSDPA provides considerably enhanced downlink speed in multiples of 1.8 Mbps (1.8, 3.6, 7.2, 14.4). The mobile phones which support 3G are called smart phones.
It is not possible to send data via HSDPA. So, there was a second major step upgrade WCDMA network to enhance it's uplink. So, second protocol called as HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) was developed. It provides enhanced uplink speed upto 5.76 Mbps.
The combination of HSDPA and HSUPA is called as HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). It is considered as 3.5G. The HSPA network is getting deployed fastly all over the world including India by 3G networks. Also many small USB devices called as 'dongles' arrived to allow broadband (technically not broadband) internet access on the go.
The upgrade of HSPA is 'evolved HSPA' or HSPA+ which allows very much enhanced bandwidth upto 21-56 Mbps.
The most recent standard in 3G family releases is LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is 3.9G.

4G:
3G is now being developed into 4G. The standard for 4G is Advanced LTE with unbelievable downlink speed upto 1Gbps. But, everything about it in my next post.

The mobile phone industry is continuously getting evolved fastly and I am always in touch with its updates and will always provide you everything about it...

Thanks and regards,
Nitish R. Muley