Third-generation (3G) radio access standards

Digital cellular and personal communication service (PCS) technologies have been a major success for the global wireless industry for voice and low bit-rate data services. Recent trends in wireless demonstrate that mobile telephony penetration has either reached fixed telephony levels or even exceeded them, particularly in Nordic countries. Also, the Internet is growing at an explosive pace. The combination of Internet and wireless technology will lay the foundation for future telecommunications. This situation will be further accelerated by the convergence of voice, video, data, fixed, and mobile technologies. With a backdrop of multiple second generation (2G) wireless standards based on code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) and other technologies, as well as limitations on interworking globally, a new third generation (3G) set of standards for wireless access, called IMT-2000, has been initiated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The vision of 3G technologies is based on wireless services that integrate multimedia, packet switching, and wideband radio with higher spectral efficiencies than the existing 2G technologies. In addition, the 3G standards would permit global roaming procedures with simple terminals or devices. In this paper, we discuss the scenarios of harmonized global standards and their current status and how each standard would serve the needs of different operators across the world.