The Evolution of Mobile Wireless Technology from 0G to 5G (2024)

New mobile generations have appeared about every ten years since the first move from 1981 analog (1G) to digital (2G) transmission in 1992. This was followed, in 2001, by 3G multi-media support, spread spectrum transmission and, at least, 200 kbit/s peak bit rate, in 2011/2012 to be followed by “real” 4G, which refers to all-Internet Protocol (IP) packet-switched networks giving mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access.

While the ITU has adopted recommendations for technologies that would be used for future global communications, they do not actually perform the standardization or development work themselves, instead relying on the work of other standard bodies such as IEEE, The Wi MAX Forum, and 3GPP.

Wireless telephone started with 0G, which became available after World War-II. In those pre-cell days, mobile operator sets up the calls and there were only a handful of channels available. These mobiles does not support the handover feature i.e. Change of channel frequency.

0G refers to pre cellular mobile telephony technology in 1970’s., such as Radio telephones that some had in cars before the advent of cell phones. Mobile radio telephonic system produced modern cellular mobile-telephony technology. Since they were predecessors of first generation of cellular telephones, these systems, are called 0G ( Zero Generation) Systems.

Technologies used in 0G systems included PTT (Push to Talk), MTS (Mobile Telephone System) , IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service),AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony) and MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobile Telephony system D). The primary users were loggers, construction foremen, realtors and celebrities. They were used for them for basic voice communication

0.5 G is a group of technologies with improved feature than the basic 0G technologies.

These early mobile telephone systems can be distinguished from earlier closed radiotelephone systems in that they were available as a commercial service that was part of the public switched telephone network, with their own telephone numbers, rather than part of a closed network such as a police radio or taxi dispatch system.

These mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks, though briefcase models were also made. Typically, the transceiver (transmitter receiver) was mounted in the vehicle trunk and attached to the “head” (dial, display, and handset) mounted near the driver seat.

They were sold through WCCs (Wireline Common Carriers, AKA telephone companies), RCCs (Radio Common Carriers), and two-way radio dealers. The primary users were loggers, construction foremen, realtors, and celebrities. They used them for basic voice communication.

Early examples for this technology are:

ARP (Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”) was the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland. The technology is zero-generation (0G), since although it had cells, moving between them was not seamless. The network was proposed in 1968 and building began in 1969. It was launched in 1971, and reached 100% geographic coverage in 1978 with 140 base stations.

ARP was a success and reached great popularity (10,800 users in the year 1977, with a peak of 35,560 in 1986), but the service eventually became too congested and was gradually replaced by the more modern NMT technology. However, ARP was the only mobile phone network with 100% percent coverage for some time thereafter, and it remained popular in many special user groups.

ARP operated on 150 MHz frequency (80 channels on 147.9 — 154.875 MHz band). Transmission power ranged from 1 watt to 5 watts. It first used only half-duplex transmission, meaning that receiving and transmitting voice could not happen at the same time. Later, full-duplex car phones were introduced. Being analog, it had no encryption and calls could be listened to with scanners. It started as a manually switched service, but was fully automated in 1990; however, by that time the number of subscribers had dwindled down to 980 users. ARP did not support handover, so calls would disconnect when moving to a new cell area. The cell size was approximately 30 km. The ARP network was closed at the end of 2000.

B-Netz was an analog, commercial mobile radio telephone network that was operated by the Deutsche Bundespost in Germany (at first only West Germany) from 1972 until 1994. The system was also implemented in neighboring countries Austria, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. The B refers to the fact that it was the country’s second public mobile telephone network, following the A-Netz.

As opposed to its predecessor, it featured direct-dialing (so that human operators were not required to connect calls). The frequency plan originally included only 38 channels (with one call possible per frequency channel), but it was upgraded to incorporate the A-Netz frequencies when that network was retired in 1980. The upgraded network had 78 channels and is sometimes referred to as the B2-Netz.

A major limitation of system was that, in order to reach a subscriber, one had to know his location since the handset would assume the local area code of the base station serving it. Handoff was not possible and calls were dropped when cells were switched. Roaming was possible between the implementing countries.

At its height in 1986, the network had 158 base stations and about 27,000 subscribers in Germany and 1,770 in Austria. At the end of 1988, there were 1,078 participants in West Berlin alone. The network was vastly oversubscribed and finding an available channel could prove difficult.

The connection between base station and handset unencrypted, so eavesdropping was easy and common. In rare cases, additional devices were added by both participants to encrypt conversations (such as discussions of important politicians).

The B-Netz would eventually be superseded by the technically superior C-Netz, which was put into operation on May 1, 1985.

1G is the first generation wireless telephone technology Cell phones. They were analog cell phones and were introduced in 1980. In 1979, the first cellular system in the world became operational by Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) in Tokyo, Japan. In Europe two most popular analog systems were Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) and (TACS) other analog systems were also introduced in 1980’s across the Europe. All the systems offered handover and roaming capability but the cellular networks were unable to interoperate between countries. This was the main drawback of First Generation mobile networks. 1G has low capacity unreliable handoff, poor voice links and no security since voice calls were played back in radio towers making these calls susceptible to unwanted. In USA AMPS was first 1G standard launched in 1982. AMPS system was allocated a 40 MHZ bandwidth within the 800–900 MHZ frequency range by the federal Communication Commission (FCC). In 1988 additional 10 MHZ bandwidth, called expanded spectrum (ES) was allocated to AMPS.

Italy used a telecommunication system called RTMI. IN UK, YACS was used. France used RadioComm 2000. In West Germany , Portugal and South Africa a telecom standard known as C-450 was used.

1G technology replaced 0G technology, which featured mobile radio telephones and such technologies as Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS), Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), and Push to Talk (PTT).

1. Developed in 1980s and completed in early 1990’s
2. 1G generation of analog cell phones speed up to 2.4kbps
3. Advance mobile phone system (AMPS) was first launched by the US and is a 1G mobile system

2G is the Second-Generation wireless cellphones, based on digital technologies in the early 1990’s. In 1991 2G was launched in Finland. 2G provided services such as text message, picture messages and MMS. 2G has greater security for both sender and receiver. All text messages are digitally encrypted, which allows for the transfer of data in such a way that only intended receiver can receive and read it. 2G systems use digital mobile access technology such as TDMA and CDMA. TDMA divides signal in time slots while as CDMA allocates each user a special code to communicate over a multiplex physical channel. Different TDMA technologies are GSM, PDC, iDEN , iS-136. GSM was first 2G System. CDMA technology is IS-95. GSM (Group Special Mobile) has origins from Europe.

GSM is most admired standard of all the mobile technologies used in more than 212 countries, in the world. GSM standard makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world. GSM uses TDMA to multiplex upto 8 calls per channel in the 900 and 1800 MHZ bands. GSM can not only deliver voice but also circuit switched data at sped upto 14.4kbps.

In the US, FCC also auctioned a new block of spectrum in the 1900MHZ band. During 20 years , GSM technology has been continuously improved to offer better services in the market. New technologies has been developed based on the original GSM system, leading to some advanced system, known as 2.5 generation (2.5 G) Systems.

GPRS is extension of existing 2G network to have the capacity of launching packet based services while enhancing the data rates supported by these networks. The term “ Second and a half generation” is used to describe 2G-Systems that have implemented a packet switched domain in addition to circuit switched domain.

“2.5 G” is an informal term. GPRS provided data rates from 56 Kbps upto 384 Kbps, using database HLR, VLR, EIR, and AuC with HSCSD, GPRS and EDGE technologies. It provides services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and for internet communication services such as e-mail and World Wide Wireless Web (WWW) 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.

2.5G networks may support services such as WAP, MMS, SMS mobile games, and search directory and well internet access.

GPRS networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, 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 2003 initially 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 Kbits/s) by switching to more sophisticated methods of coding (8PSK), within existing GSM timeslots.

EDGE technology is an extended version of GSM. It allows the clear and fast transmission of data and information. It is also termed as IMT-SC or single carrier. EDGE technology was invented and introduced by Cingular, which is now known as AT&T. EDGE technology is preferred over GSM due to its flexibility to carry packet switch data and circuit switch data.

EDGE transfers data in fewer seconds if we compare it with GPRS Technology. For example a typical text file of 40KB is transferred in only 2 seconds as compared to the transfer from GPRS technology, which is 6 seconds. The biggest advantage of using EDGE technology is one does not need to install any additional hardware and software in order to make use of EDGE Technology. There are no additional charges for exploiting this technology. If a person is an ex GPRS Technology user he can utilize this technology without paying any additional charges.

3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology. It is based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) who formulated a plan to implement a global frequency band in the 2000 MHZ range, which supports a single, ubiquitous wireless communication standard for all countries throughout the world. This paln was called International Mobile Telephone 2000 (IMT-2000), Standard.

3G evolution for CDMA systems lead to Cdma 2000. Several variants of CDMA 2000 are based on IS-95 and IS- 95B technologies. 3G evolution for GSM is IS-136 and PDC System lead to wideband CDMA (WCDMA), also called Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS) , W-CDMA is based on GSM network.

3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, mobile television, GPS (global positioning system) and video conferencing. all in a mobile environment.

3G has the following enhancements over 2.5G and previous networks:

• Enhanced audio and video streaming.
• Several Times higher data speed.
• Video-conferencing support.
• Web and WAP browsing at higher speeds.
• IPTV (TV through the Internet) support.

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access(HSDPA) is a mobile telephony protocol which provides a smooth evolutionary path for UMTS-based 3G networks allowing for higher data transfer speeds. HSDPA is a packet-based data service in W-CDMA downlink with data transmission up to 8–10 Mbit/s (and 20 Mbit/s for MIMO systems) over a 5MHz bandwidth in WCDMA downlink. HSDPA implementations includes Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), Multiple-Input Multiple- Output (MIMO), Hybrid Automatic Request (HARQ), fast cell search, and advanced receiver design.

The 3.75G refer to the technologies beyond the well defined 3G wireless/mobile technologies. High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is a UMTS / WCDMA uplink evolution technology.

The HSUPA mobile telecommunications technology is directly related to HSDPA and the two are complimentary to one another.

HSUPA will enhance advanced person-to-person data applications with higher and symmetric data rates, like mobile e-mail and real-time person-toperson gaming. Traditional business applications along with many consumer applications will benefit from enhanced uplink speed. HSUPA will initially boost the UMTS / WCDMA uplink up to 1.4Mbps and in later releases up to 5.8Mbps.

4G is the fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology, succeeding 3G. A 4G system must provide capabilities defined by ITU in IMT Advanced. Potential and current applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, and 3D television.

If you are using 4G, you can access the internet through any of the aforesaid technologies even while moving from one place to another. 4G is a concept of inter-operability between different sorts of networks, which is all about high speed data transfer such as 0–100MBPS of either the server or the data receiver set is moving at a speed of 60 Kmph. If the server and the receiver are stationary, the data transfer would be a minimum of 1GBPS.

The first-release Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard was commercially deployed in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden in 2009, and has since been deployed throughout most parts of the world. It has, however, been debated whether first-release versions should be considered 4G LTE.

5G is the fifth generation of cellular network technology. The industry association 3GPP defines any system using “5G NR” (5G New Radio) software as, “5G”, a definition that came into general use by late 2018. Others may reserve the term for systems that meet the requirements of the ITU IMT-2020. 3GPP will submit their 5G NR to the ITU.[1] It follows 2G, 3G, 4G, and their respective associated technologies (such as GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced Pro, and others). In addition to traditional mobile operator services, 5G NR also addresses specific requirements for private mobile networks ranging from industrial IoT to critical communications.

5G network technology will open a new era in mobile communication technology. The 5G mobile phones will have access to different wireless technologies at the same time and the terminal should be able to combine different flows from different technologies.

5G networks are digital cellular networks, in which the service area covered by providers is divided into small geographical areas called cells. Analog signals representing sounds and images are digitized in the telephone, converted by an analog to digital converter and transmitted as a stream of bits. All the 5G wireless devices in a cell communicate by radio waves with a local antenna array and low power automated transceiver (transmitter and receiver) in the cell, over frequency channels assigned by the transceiver from a pool of frequencies that are reused in other cells. The local antennas are connected with the telephone network and the Internet by a high bandwidth optical fiber or wireless backhaul connection. As in other cell networks, a mobile device crossing from one cell to another is automatically “handed off” seamlessly to the new cell.

There are plans to use millimeter waves for 5G. Millimeter waves have shorter range than microwaves, therefore the cells are limited to smaller size. Millimeter waves also have more trouble passing through building walls. Millimeter wave antennas are smaller than the large antennas used in previous cellular networks. They are only a few inches (several centimeters) long. Another technique used for increasing the data rate is massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). Each cell will have multiple antennas communicating with the wireless device, received by multiple antennas in the device, thus multiple bitstreams of data will be transmitted simultaneously, in parallel. In a technique called, beamforming, the base station computer will continuously calculate the best route for radio waves to reach each wireless device, and will organize multiple antennas to work together as phased arrays to create beams of millimeter waves to reach the device. More on millimeter waves here: https://youtu.be/aacnhn8IcHI

As the IoT market accelerates, many more devices will be connected to cells. 5G allows up to 900,000 more devices to be connected per square kilometre than 4G, which supports the connection of at most 100,000 devices per square kilometre.

The 5G network will be 100 times more energy efficient than 4G. So even as the number of wireless devices increases, the energy required to power them will decline:

This means the carbon footprint of wireless communication networks globally will also decline or at least not increase proportionate to the number of devices increases.

As the number of networked devices increases, 5G will have the capacity to manage the increase in network throughput. That’s because the expected area traffic capacity — defined as the end user data rate measured in megabits per second per square meter — of 5G networks will be 100 times higher than existing 4G networks.

The new 5G wireless devices also have 4G LTE capability, as the new networks use 4G for initially establishing the connection with the cell, as well as in locations where 5G access is not available.

5G is the future of wireless technology and significantly more advanced and optimized than 4G in many key aspects. 5G has been designed to meet the demands of future network devices and can connect significantly greater number of devices than 4G. It has the faster network response time, consumes less power, utilizes the available spectrum better, enhances mobility and increases the throughput of end-user application data.

Taken together, 5G will let us enjoy a wider range of advancements and new applications in the coming years.