The Many Faces of 3G

An anonymous reader writes "Did you ever notice how each new generation of cell-phone tech gets branded '3G,' and the previous thing is retroactively downgraded to some lesser number of Gs? An MIT engineer explains why in this brilliant essay about '3G' over the last 10 years, showing how the cell carriers have kept offering it and swiping it away to sell more stuff. He cites numerous Cingular/AT&T and Sprint press releases showing how the companies have made '3G' into a brand name ideally suited for amnesiac consumers. Meanwhile, no cell carrier is foolish enough to sell you bottom-line throughput like an ISP in 1996 — you could actually hold them to that (PDF)."

Comments

I have often wondered about this.

[maillemaker]

From the article:

>What we really ought to care about is the same as with any Internet service provider -- the throughput
>and latency and reliability you get to the endpoints you want to reach. That's what matters, not the
>sophistication of one piece of the puzzle.

I have often wondered about all the marketing jargon floating about cell phones, and about people who go ga-ga about how their cell phone browses the internet.

Every phone I've tried browsing the web on makes me just about cry with frustration - I feel like I'm back in college with a 2400 baud modem again.

When you shop for an ISP you shop based on best-effort advertised upload and download rates.

Cell phones should be the same way.

Re:I have often wondered about this.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I doubt your cell is anywhere near that slow."

don't assume what other people do or do not know. exactly because voice data requires a certain specific minimum throughput, it is given a higher priority. cell phone data and cell phone voice go over different channels, as well. and cell phone data in the US is absolute garbage. if cell phone voice performed as badly as data, then people WOULD have something to complain about, and have grounds for lawsuits. this is why cell phone voice works fine.

data, on the other hand, is horrid. i agree with the person whom you're trying to tell what they are or are not experiencing: that cell phone data connections in the US are an absolute joke.

and compression? really? that's your solution? please stop talking, now. you're not helping, and have quite missed the point.

"3G" has always been meaningless

[StikyPad]

They didn't "make 3G into a brand"; it has always BEEN a marketing label. There is no such thing as a "3G" wireless signal, rather there are various (existing and emerging) modulation techniques which collectively exist under the 3G label. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Overview

Moreover, the signal is the phy layer. The fact that you have a 3G signal doesn't guarantee any minimum performance, any more than having a gigabit NIC guarantees a fast internet connection. It only defines the upper boundary of performance.

Re:What about Sprint?

[AndrewNeo]

(Sprint is WiMax)

Negative Externality

[Haffner]

I think that the overuse of 3G (and subsequent use of 3G as an advertised speed) is a result of locked phones being tied to carriers. When Joe Average Consumer goes out to buy landline internet, there really isn't a whole lot to choose from that differentiates comcast, att, and whoever else. The main thing he decides on is speed; the hardware that comes with is usually irrelevant. What we have in the cell phone market is 3G being used as a sort of loose guarantee that internet will be somewhat fast. The whole using a protocol as a speed definition is stupid, but the reason Joe doesn't notice is that he is too busy choosing which phone to use, which determines the carrier. It seems all carriers have realized that it is significantly easier to advertise "3G enabled" and not put a speed on it, and let the phone pull in sales, rather than the network. If we lived in a world (or nearly any foreign country) where unlocked phones are the norm, you'd pick your phone, then comparison shop for either the fastest or cheapest (or balance of the 2) network.

tl;dr version: Overuse of 3G is caused by locked phones

Re:3G and 4G is consumer friendly

[alen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-CDMA_(UMTS)

dumbass, W-CDMA is used around the world and is commonly called UMTS which the iPhone and Nexus One support. GSM was coined back in TDMA days and it's just the name of a worldwide governing body, not a technical standard. Verizon's version of CDMA is an upgraded version of CDMA2000

Do we really need to point out that 3G

[RapmasterT]

Do we really need to point out that 3G doesn't actually mean ANYTHING? Hell, I'm surprised we're not at 10G or higher now, nothing stops any carrier from one-upping the competition by simply saying "Sprint may have 4G, but we have 5G!!". that's what happens when you make up terms that don't mean anything.

Re:3G/4G

[sjames]

Probably because justice in the U.S. costs way more than $30.

Re:Not really...

[Gruturo]

2G was well defined, as meaning digital. 4G is also well defined, with features like an all-IP network, 100Mb/s mobile bandwidth (1Gb/s stationary), and so on. 3G is not so well defined, but it's generally understood to mean something in the same category as UMTS.

Maybe the confusion is just a US thing?

Indeed this confusion seems to be a US thing. On the other side of the pond, probably thanks to a much more uniform standard, there is no doubt about what a 3G phone is, and noone (that I'm aware of) even considered trying to pass a non-3G phone for one.

Anyway it never ceases to amaze me how much you guys let your telcos rob you blind (not claiming it doesn't happen here - far from it - but your average bill is like 3 times ours, and the dollar is weaker atm), lie to you, tie you into years of awful contracts with hefty termination fees, pull all sorts of crap (aided by mutually incompatible standards which also make your handset useless if you want to change carrier), delay upgrades by years, remove functions like tethering or data connections from phones which are created with them, etc.

AT&T is posting record revenues in times of recession and yet skimping on needed upgrades to its insufficient network, I wonder how come there isn't an angry mob at their door.