Simply put, 3G cellular technology will bring wireless broadband data services to your mobile phone. Boasting speeds from 144Kbps (roughly three times faster than a 56K dial-up modem connection) to 2.4Mbps (close to cable-modem speed), 3G networks let you speed through Web pages, enjoy streaming music video, watch on-demand video programming, download and play 3D games, and videoconference with your fellow chatterers. While the interface is undoubtedly different on a cell phone, the experience of surfing, downloading, and streaming stands to be very close to that of a broadband connection on a computer.

	Cellular technology: a brief history See how it all started for cell phones
	Types of 3G Not all high-speed technologies are the same
	Handsets with 3G Show me the 3G-enabled phones out there
	3G glossary Decipher 3G's alphabet soup

Though the move to 2G was a great leap in terms of the technology, the splintering of the CDMA and GSM camps created a mess in some countries such as the US which had some carriers opting for GSM while others choosing CDMA. While each camp claims to have the advantage, the schism resulted in two competing networks with little incentive to create a unifying 3G standard. Conversely in Europe, 3G arrived much more quickly because all carriers were working off a government-mandated standard.

Of course, there were other factors working against 3G's adoption in some countries. Rolling out the new networks was very expensive, and customers had to be sold on the services. Furthermore, the move also involved technological constraints. Carriers had to bridge the gap between slow-as-molasses 2G service and zippy 3G with "2.5G" network enhancements. In operation a couple years now, 2.5G networks let you download ring tones, listen to short audio clips, send multimedia messages (MMS), or surf the Web, albeit slowly. These services include GPRS, which is capable of transmitting and receiving data at an average of about 30Kbps to 40Kbps, or a little slower than standard 56K dial-up service and EDGE, another GSM enhancement that manages about 90Kbps on an average day, or almost twice as fast as dial-up. On the CDMA side is 1xRTT, an early version of CDMA2000, which squeaks in about 60Kbps to 80Kbps. The next step, of course, is 3G and beyond. But some important differences remain.

Types of 3G
There are two main flavors of 3G: UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service), which is being rolled out over existing GSM networks, and CDMA2000, which brings 3G speeds to CDMA networks; for a detailed explanation of terms, see the glossary. Both UMTS and CDMA2000--which has two high-speed offshoots, the data-only 1xEV-DO and the voice-plus-data 1xEV-DV--are already available in major cities with more expansion set for 2006. Speeds for both should be about DSL quality. We're also beginning to see discussions of 3.5G and 4G technologies such as HSDPA and WiMax, which should provide cable modem and gigabyte Ethernet speeds.