Issue Seven - Conversations on Technology, Business and Society

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MTN JABULANI SUMMARY RESULTS
ORANGE e160 ‘S SUMMARY RESULTS
Global System for Mobile
communications or GSM is the
current and most widely used
standard for mobile phones
today while 3G is the next
generation mobile technology that has begun
to replace GSM. 3G is still in its infancy and
only has a very small area covered when
compared to GSM.
GSM technology has been the most
prominent mobile phone technology in the
world. Although there are other technologies
that are competing with GSM, it has not
budged in its dominance. GSM offered a lot of
possibilities to the world of mobile phones like
text messaging and even low speed internet
access. Further improvements were made
with the introduction of GPRS and EDGE that
extended the capabilities of GSM networks.
Multimedia messaging was added to its list of
features allowing subscribers to send pictures,
audio clips, and even short video clips to
Difference between 3G & GSM
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each other. EDGE also increased the speed of
mobile internet browsing to Dial-up speeds.
3G is a whole new technology that
was introduced as a replacement to the
aging GSM technology. It offers substantial
improvements over its predecessor in almost
all aspects imaginable. For starters, mobile
internet speeds for 3G networks starts out
at 384kbps which is already within the range
of DSL speeds. At the higher end of the 3G
spectrum is HSDPA which can achieve speeds
of up to 7.2mbps, way faster than what GSM
can offer. Theses faster speeds also made
it possible to add new features that were
unavailable for GSM. One of which is video
calling, that allows people to see each other
while talking.
The only drawback behind 3G technology
is the fact that it is not backward compatible
to the older GSM technology. This means that
your 3G mobile phones cannot communicate
with GSM towers and 2G phones cannot
communicate with 3G towers. To preserve
backwards compatibility, most telecoms install
newer 3G radios while still maintaining the
older GSM radios. Mobile phone makers
also include 3G support into their phones
without removing 2G technologies. This would
gradually fade as more and more 3G radios
are put up and more 3G mobile phones are
built.
It would only be a matter of time until
3G technologies fully supersede the GSM
network, this not a competition but a natural
transition from an older technology to a
new one. Therefore, it would make sense
to consider this when you are purchasing a
new mobile phone and get one that already
supports 3G technology.
SOURCE: http://www.differencebetween.net/
technology/difference-between-gsm-and-
3g/#ixzz0zstds1fz