Finally 3G is actually hitting the streets of India. Slowly,but for sure. Now, if you are mistaken 3G for a mobile technology that will revolutionize the overall mobile experiance then I ‘m sorry for you,my friend. Why? The reasons are several.

Lets begin with “3G” itself. First of all , it’s not a technology.It’s a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services. According to 3G as a “standard” it must fulfill the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by theInternational Telecommunication Union. Application services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, mobile Internet access, video calls and mobile TV, all in a mobile environment. To meet the IMT-2000 standards, a system is required to provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbit/s.

Second, it has almost nothing to do with the voice call clarity. Its meant to enhance you data transmission speed. Technically, the main difference between 3G and 2G networks is how quickly data can be sent and received. 3G networks can send data up to 40 times the rates of earlier digital networks, which means that in addition to audio, graphics and text, 3G customers can also send and receive video content, in 3G coverage areas. They provide service at 5-10 Mb per second. Moreover the there has been a tremoundous increase in download speed, your upload speed remains more or less , the same !

Third, well, if to the Indian mobile phone operators, 3G means call drops, poor coverage, and low uploading speeds, then they’ve actually come up to their own expectations! I barely get any 3G coverage of the service except for the outlets of my operator and their head-office. Found this fact,when I went to ask more details on this issues 🙂 . Costumers, personal advice, don’t be too excited about 3G. Its more beneficial for the operators than to the us, the USERS.

The first pre-commercial 3G network was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, branded as FOMA. It was first available in May 2001 as a pre-release (test) of W-CDMA technology. The first commercial launch of 3G was also by NTT DoCoMo in Japan on 1 October 2001, although it was initially somewhat limited in scope; broader availability of the system was delayed by apparent concerns over its reliability.

In 2008, India entered the 3G arena with the launch of 3G enabled Mobile and Data services by Government owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL). Later, MTNL launched 3G in Delhi and Mumbai. Nationwide auction of 3G wireless spectrum was announced in April 2010.The first Private-sector service provider that launched 3G services is Tata DoCoMo, on November 5, 2010. And the second is by Reliance Communications, December 13, 2010. Vodafone Launched their 3G by mid of March,2011 . Then, Bharti Airtel launched their 3G services on 24 January 2011 in Bangalore and also launched in Delhi & Jaipur on March 4, 2011(not GSM but only USB estick). Aircel also launched 3G in Kolkata in the month of February.Idea also launched its 3G services in mid April. Other providers like Virgin are expected to launch 3G services by Q1 2011.

3G is currently not stable in India, and isn’t worth paying the heavy bills. Hopefully, in the coming months, the services get better, and there is better coverage. India waited for a decade for 3G to arrive. I hope it gets better as times goes by. The only operators I think are doing a good job on providing 3G services are BSNL and Reliance Communications.