'Happy slapping' teenager bailed
A 16-year-old girl arrested after an attack on a teenager that was filmed on a mobile video phone has been bailed by police until next month.
Becky Smith, 16, was knocked out and suffered temporary paralysis when she was attacked near her Manchester home.
The teenager from Blackley, who went into a police station voluntarily, was questioned on suspicion of assault, a police spokeswoman said.
The attack was filmed on a mobile phone - a craze known as "happy slapping".
Police said the girl who was arrested had been released on bail until 21 June.
Miss Smith's family have now called for a ban on video phones in schools.
The schoolgirl, who starts taking her GCSEs next week, suffered serious head injuries and spent two days at North Manchester General Hospital after the attack.
'Life savers'
Her mother, Georgina Smith, described the attack as "absolutely horrendous".
Mrs Smith said measures needed to be taken to stop the video from being shown.
A spokesman for Plant Hill High School said: "This is a police matter which happened outside school."
Andrew Buckingham, from Victim Support, told the BBC such attacks left victims traumatised for months afterwards.
However, he did not think a mobile phone ban was a good idea, as for some people they were "life savers".
"Clearly you should take away the phones from the perpetrators of happy slap incidents but I think for many young people who use their phones sensibly and responsibly that would be a backward move," he said.
He said the best approach was to educate the perpetrators on the "impact of the crime" and deal with them through the courts.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/manchester/4566603.stm
Published: 2005/05/20 16:02:25 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Mobile & TV
3GSM It's not just the slow uptake of video services that should worry network operators, it seems that more than half of European users who've tried TV on the move decided it wasn't worth the effort. This data comes from a survey of 22,000 European users, commissioned by Tellabs and carried out by M:Metrics.
Cost is the biggest issue turning off users. Forty-five per cent of disconnections came down to money, but 24 per cent dropped the service because of quality and reliability issues.
Price and quality generally go hand-in-hand, so it's safe to assume that better quality would have reduced concerns about price.
Nearly 30 per cent of UK users cited quality as the reason they wanted out.
The study didn't establish what technology was being used, so unfortunately there's no opportunity to compare broadcast with narrowcast solutions. But overall it seems that users aren't enjoying the experience of video on the move and, once they've shown it off to their mates, seem to have little time for it.
This does not bode well for the industry, which is betting a great deal on consumers wanting video on the go and being prepared to pay for it. ®
By Bill Ray in Barcelona @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/12/no_to_mobile_tv/
Related stories
Orange puts the Beeb in your pocket (30 March 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/30/eastenders_goes_orange/
Bristol TV trial proves 3G won't interfere with 3G (14 February 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/14/mbms_is_top/
Mobile entertainment market will hit $38.1bn by 2011 (21 December 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/21/mobile_entertaiment_growth/
Sky signs up Google (7 December 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/07/sky_signs_google/
Sony and Ericsson get loved up over mobile TV (27 November 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/sonyericsson_mobile_tv_deal/
3's mobile phone TV service could land users in trouble (23 November 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/23/3_slingbox/
Cost is the biggest issue turning off users. Forty-five per cent of disconnections came down to money, but 24 per cent dropped the service because of quality and reliability issues.
Price and quality generally go hand-in-hand, so it's safe to assume that better quality would have reduced concerns about price.
Nearly 30 per cent of UK users cited quality as the reason they wanted out.
The study didn't establish what technology was being used, so unfortunately there's no opportunity to compare broadcast with narrowcast solutions. But overall it seems that users aren't enjoying the experience of video on the move and, once they've shown it off to their mates, seem to have little time for it.
This does not bode well for the industry, which is betting a great deal on consumers wanting video on the go and being prepared to pay for it. ®
By Bill Ray in Barcelona @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/12/no_to_mobile_tv/
Related stories
Orange puts the Beeb in your pocket (30 March 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/30/eastenders_goes_orange/
Bristol TV trial proves 3G won't interfere with 3G (14 February 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/14/mbms_is_top/
Mobile entertainment market will hit $38.1bn by 2011 (21 December 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/21/mobile_entertaiment_growth/
Sky signs up Google (7 December 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/07/sky_signs_google/
Sony and Ericsson get loved up over mobile TV (27 November 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/sonyericsson_mobile_tv_deal/
3's mobile phone TV service could land users in trouble (23 November 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/23/3_slingbox/
Mobiles On Music
Sound future for music on mobiles
By David Reid
Reporter, BBC Click
Mobiles can come equipped to play movies and TV, but that puts a lot of strain on your eyesight, and their data storage capacity.
Omnifone is putting up a fight against Apple's iPhone
Music phones are emerging as the quality players in mobile entertainment.
Some of the models on show at Europe's largest mobile phone show, 3GSM, already look slick enough to nudge MP3 players off the shelf.
The secret of their success is that phones can now become mass-storage devices, using tiny, removable memory chips many gigabytes in size that can take thousands of tracks. Some have embedded memory that can hold yet more.
The relentless pace of technology innovation means those storage capacities are only going to grow.
Dan Inbar from computer memory maker SanDisk said: "In the past, the doubling of capacity has been every 18 months. Now it is coming down close to 12 months.
"Of course the other side of that is the applications that go with it. Currently the applications are running very, very fast as well."
Mobile downloads
Music on your mobile is about more than just a phone with room for more than just the top 20. The owners of music phones really want the ability to download songs when they are out and about.
Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January
iPhone launch
Lots of companies are lining up to offer these sorts of services and while they jockey for position they know there is an elephant waiting in the wings: Apple's iTunes.
Apple's previous foray into phone music, the Motorola-designed Rokr, could not do mobile downloads; the recently announced iPhone, while not yet on the market, should.
UK-based Omnifone is offering a download subscription service which it is promoting as a cheaper and fresher alternative to what it says may come from Apple.
"Apple's business is an Apple-centric solution," said Rob Lewis, head of Omnifone. "Steve Jobs wants to be centre stage of hardware and digital music sales.
"We believe that together with 23 mobile operators and all the other manufacturers - who are already creating a billion devices every year - we can create a really compelling alternative for consumers that gives them the freedom to play and download music wherever they want on whatever device they want to buy."
The figure of a billion phones a year is the reason everyone is so interested in music phones and downloadable tracks, not least because the number of MP3 players knocking around is a fraction of the number of mobiles.
High costs
But there are concerns about cost. Consumers already complain that downloads to mobiles are overpriced and come with some hefty hidden charges.
Andrew Bud of the Mobile Entertainment Forum told us: "We have to give consumers confidence by making the pricing transparent. Customers have to know what they are going to pay when they buy it.
"Today that is not the case, because today they can buy a full track download for £1.50 or a couple of dollars, but in many territories they will be charged an additional amount of money that is not clear and sometimes may be as high as £20 ($39) for the data download charges associated with that. And that's a real problem."
Music phones look all set for take off but, as always, buyers beware.
As you are weigh up the pros and cons of which phone to buy and how much memory to install for downloading on the move, be sure to read the small print of your phone contract first.
Do that and these phones could put a skip into all our of our steps.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6366261.stm
Published: 2007/02/16 14:57:27 GMT
By David Reid
Reporter, BBC Click
Mobiles can come equipped to play movies and TV, but that puts a lot of strain on your eyesight, and their data storage capacity.
Omnifone is putting up a fight against Apple's iPhone
Music phones are emerging as the quality players in mobile entertainment.
Some of the models on show at Europe's largest mobile phone show, 3GSM, already look slick enough to nudge MP3 players off the shelf.
The secret of their success is that phones can now become mass-storage devices, using tiny, removable memory chips many gigabytes in size that can take thousands of tracks. Some have embedded memory that can hold yet more.
The relentless pace of technology innovation means those storage capacities are only going to grow.
Dan Inbar from computer memory maker SanDisk said: "In the past, the doubling of capacity has been every 18 months. Now it is coming down close to 12 months.
"Of course the other side of that is the applications that go with it. Currently the applications are running very, very fast as well."
Mobile downloads
Music on your mobile is about more than just a phone with room for more than just the top 20. The owners of music phones really want the ability to download songs when they are out and about.
Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January
iPhone launch
Lots of companies are lining up to offer these sorts of services and while they jockey for position they know there is an elephant waiting in the wings: Apple's iTunes.
Apple's previous foray into phone music, the Motorola-designed Rokr, could not do mobile downloads; the recently announced iPhone, while not yet on the market, should.
UK-based Omnifone is offering a download subscription service which it is promoting as a cheaper and fresher alternative to what it says may come from Apple.
"Apple's business is an Apple-centric solution," said Rob Lewis, head of Omnifone. "Steve Jobs wants to be centre stage of hardware and digital music sales.
"We believe that together with 23 mobile operators and all the other manufacturers - who are already creating a billion devices every year - we can create a really compelling alternative for consumers that gives them the freedom to play and download music wherever they want on whatever device they want to buy."
The figure of a billion phones a year is the reason everyone is so interested in music phones and downloadable tracks, not least because the number of MP3 players knocking around is a fraction of the number of mobiles.
High costs
But there are concerns about cost. Consumers already complain that downloads to mobiles are overpriced and come with some hefty hidden charges.
Andrew Bud of the Mobile Entertainment Forum told us: "We have to give consumers confidence by making the pricing transparent. Customers have to know what they are going to pay when they buy it.
"Today that is not the case, because today they can buy a full track download for £1.50 or a couple of dollars, but in many territories they will be charged an additional amount of money that is not clear and sometimes may be as high as £20 ($39) for the data download charges associated with that. And that's a real problem."
Music phones look all set for take off but, as always, buyers beware.
As you are weigh up the pros and cons of which phone to buy and how much memory to install for downloading on the move, be sure to read the small print of your phone contract first.
Do that and these phones could put a skip into all our of our steps.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6366261.stm
Published: 2007/02/16 14:57:27 GMT
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Media Lesson About Audeince
Does proliferation benefit consumers?
In terms of mobile phones i would say that proliferation does benefit consumers as the more people that have mobile phones then the more people you can text and some poeple on the same network get discounted and even free calls and texts.
This is good because it helps consumers save money and get in contact easier and quicker.
So in my opinion proliferation in mobiles is agood thing.
Is consumer choice a reality?
I would have to say no, this is because people dont realy get a full choice or customise products so that they fit what the consumer want exactly. Its more of a "you get what your given" scenario where you have to acept the fact that you will not be able to get exactly what you want. Having said that you can customise some aspects but not the whole thing. It is an illusion as you can only get things that "are on the menu" as you have a limeted choice. You cant go into a italian resturant and ask for sushi.
In this sence consumer choice is a false idea.
Would government regulation benefit the consumer?
I think it would because it would regulate the cost and the material given to the public. In this way games or messages that are inopropriate such as games like "Manhunt" would never of been produced as people are easily influenced by things they see and it could even be argued that due to games like these crime is on the increase.
It is also good due to the regulation of costs in order to prevent things like inflation etc. Which would be the outcome of overly priced products.
Is quality and content the first consideration of the producers?
In awnser to this question i would have to say no as sometimes products are only intended to last a short period of time e.g. 4 months as it is felt that the consumers will get a new one in that time so there is no reason that something should outlast that time period.
Some companies offer waranties etc or will replace broken products if it is broken or lost in a month within purchase etc.
Companies arent concerned with how long a product will last and consumers usually buy things for the things they offer, the price, and the things they have on it rather than the durability.
I WROTE THIS ONE MYSELF TOO =]
IM A GENIUS
In terms of mobile phones i would say that proliferation does benefit consumers as the more people that have mobile phones then the more people you can text and some poeple on the same network get discounted and even free calls and texts.
This is good because it helps consumers save money and get in contact easier and quicker.
So in my opinion proliferation in mobiles is agood thing.
Is consumer choice a reality?
I would have to say no, this is because people dont realy get a full choice or customise products so that they fit what the consumer want exactly. Its more of a "you get what your given" scenario where you have to acept the fact that you will not be able to get exactly what you want. Having said that you can customise some aspects but not the whole thing. It is an illusion as you can only get things that "are on the menu" as you have a limeted choice. You cant go into a italian resturant and ask for sushi.
In this sence consumer choice is a false idea.
Would government regulation benefit the consumer?
I think it would because it would regulate the cost and the material given to the public. In this way games or messages that are inopropriate such as games like "Manhunt" would never of been produced as people are easily influenced by things they see and it could even be argued that due to games like these crime is on the increase.
It is also good due to the regulation of costs in order to prevent things like inflation etc. Which would be the outcome of overly priced products.
Is quality and content the first consideration of the producers?
In awnser to this question i would have to say no as sometimes products are only intended to last a short period of time e.g. 4 months as it is felt that the consumers will get a new one in that time so there is no reason that something should outlast that time period.
Some companies offer waranties etc or will replace broken products if it is broken or lost in a month within purchase etc.
Companies arent concerned with how long a product will last and consumers usually buy things for the things they offer, the price, and the things they have on it rather than the durability.
I WROTE THIS ONE MYSELF TOO =]
IM A GENIUS
Thursday, 18 January 2007
Terms and how they relate to my Case Study
Convergance
Mobile phones have converged with many diffrent types of media, over time it has converged with cameras, mp3s, videos, games, text, multimedia messages, voice recording, alarm clocks, calculator, timer, stopwatch, caledar, phone book, internet browserand bluetooth and infer red
Digitality
Through the use of digital mobile phones have become more protable and had some miniturisation, however ther is the argument that mobile phone have gotten too small to use and that the buttons and the screens are getting rediculously small.
Digital things use a series of 0s and 1s in order to turn swithces on and off in a particular order. Ditial things are non-linear and can be skiped through and changed all the time.
Analouge
This is the way that technology used to work and uses radio waves these waves can easily pick up interfiercance and arent reliable to use. Digital made Analouge obsolete. Analouge is linear and you have to go through it in a certain order.
Synergy
How a media institution tries to use its various products to sell one another (e.g. film and soundtrack and video game, etc.)
In mobile phones this would be things like a mobile phone changeable case, add ons such as extra memory, charms that light up when you get an incoming call or message, ringtones from particual artists, media videos of things like music videos.
Interactivity
The ability of the consumer to participate in new ways with media (e.g. use the red button on Sky, play games on consoles, send texts, take pictures with mobiles, etc.)
Mobile phones are very interactive as mobiles are constatnly changing and converging with new types of media. When the 4G phones come out they will be so interactive that they will be able to open your and only recognise your finger print.
Personalisation
Enjoying a personalised media experience through your laptop, mobile, Yahoo page and by setting favourites in your free digibox, Sky digital, etc.
In mobile phones these are things such as setting a personal ringtone, background, screen saver, and even sometimes the font colour and type.
Portability
As far as portability goes mobile phones are the most cahnging. Mobiles are getting smaller and smalller infact they are getting too small.
Miniturasation
Technology is getting smaller in many cases, enabling portability and also giving the potential for more to fit in a smaller space.
In mobiles its blatently obvious no need to explain.
Connectivity
Mobile phones connect to other mobiles from other networks as well as from its own. It uses bluetooth and infared as well. It uses the internet too and conects with people all over the world through it.
Trojan Horse
Getting one type of technology into the home via another and thus generating consumer interest (for instance DVD via PS2).
Agian in mobiles it would be a camera, video and voice recorder, internet etc.
Hegemony
To possess hegemony means that a producer’s ideas or products dominate a particular market, audience or consumers. For instance, Apple dominates the MP3 player market.
In mobiles ther isnt any read dominant leading comapny, at one point it appeared that nokia was in the lead but now all companies are evenly used.
Democratisation
Wider availability of media technology through cheaper prices, libraries, convergence, etc..
This is based on the idea of capitilism as people will always lower thier prices so that people will go and use thier products instead of orthers due to thier lower costs.
In mobiles this would be things like the network rate and cheaper text deals.
Some companies offer free texts to people with the same network and others give an hour where all calls are half price.
Hypertextuality
Hypertext links for connectivity, etc.
http://www.garyhayes.tv/index.html (for personalised media)
For personalised home entertainment and human behaviour.
In mobile phones hypertextuality would be the fact that you can go to an options menue and select the program you want to use you dont have to go through a long list and wait for the option to appear.
HAhahahahaha i actually done this one myself i didnt steal it yay =]
all credits for this go to me yes yes they do
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Thursday, 11 January 2007
iPhone information
The iPhone has finally hit the shelves, but not in the way that Apple fans were hoping.
Linksys introduced a series of seven VoIP devices on Monday under the 'iPhone' brand. The devices include cordless and wireless models that support Skype and Yahoo Messenger with voice services. Prices range from $79.99 to $369.99.
The 'iPhone' name is noteworthy because media and analysts have used the name over the past year to indicate a mobile phone from Apple. The name was chosen because it resembles that of the 'iPod'.
According to the latest rumours, Apple is preparing to launch a mobile phone early next year. The company was also believed to be launching an iPhone last August, as well as last year when Motorola started selling its iTunes powered Rokr.
Apple has never given any indication that it plans to launch a phone, nor that it plans to name the device 'iPhone'.
But if Apple is preparing to launch an iPhone, the company will now be forced to use a different name.
A spokesman for Cisco, Linksys' parent company, said that Cisco acquired the trademark to the iPhone brand in 2000 through the purchase of Infogear Technologies.
Apple first registered the internet domain name iphone.org in 1999. The computer maker did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Cisco spokesman declined to comment on any dialogue between Apple and Cisco, but said that the company had no reason to believe that Apple ever intended to use the name 'iPhone' for its rumoured smartphone device.
Cisco's trademark would be worthless if the company never shipped a product, but its ownership claim would remain valid as long as the networking manufacturer showed an intent to use the brand in commerce within five years after filing for the trademark, according to Matthew Kabak, a San Francisco trademark and copyright lawyer.
Apple does have a shot at obtaining the rights to the name, however, if it can prove that it applied to the trademark before Infogear, Kabak added.
Linksys introduced a series of seven VoIP devices on Monday under the 'iPhone' brand. The devices include cordless and wireless models that support Skype and Yahoo Messenger with voice services. Prices range from $79.99 to $369.99.
The 'iPhone' name is noteworthy because media and analysts have used the name over the past year to indicate a mobile phone from Apple. The name was chosen because it resembles that of the 'iPod'.
According to the latest rumours, Apple is preparing to launch a mobile phone early next year. The company was also believed to be launching an iPhone last August, as well as last year when Motorola started selling its iTunes powered Rokr.
Apple has never given any indication that it plans to launch a phone, nor that it plans to name the device 'iPhone'.
But if Apple is preparing to launch an iPhone, the company will now be forced to use a different name.
A spokesman for Cisco, Linksys' parent company, said that Cisco acquired the trademark to the iPhone brand in 2000 through the purchase of Infogear Technologies.
Apple first registered the internet domain name iphone.org in 1999. The computer maker did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Cisco spokesman declined to comment on any dialogue between Apple and Cisco, but said that the company had no reason to believe that Apple ever intended to use the name 'iPhone' for its rumoured smartphone device.
Cisco's trademark would be worthless if the company never shipped a product, but its ownership claim would remain valid as long as the networking manufacturer showed an intent to use the brand in commerce within five years after filing for the trademark, according to Matthew Kabak, a San Francisco trademark and copyright lawyer.
Apple does have a shot at obtaining the rights to the name, however, if it can prove that it applied to the trademark before Infogear, Kabak added.
Thursday, 4 January 2007
Random phone information
Wireless phone standards have a life of their own. You can tell, because they're spoken of reverently in terms of generations. There's great-granddad who's pioneering story pre-dates cellular, grandma and grandpa analog cellular, mom and dad digital cellular, 3G wireless just starting to make a place for itself in the world, and the new baby on the way, 4G.
Most families have a rich history of great accomplishments, famous ancestors, skeletons in the closets and wacky in-laws. The wireless scrapbook is just as dynamic. There is success, infighting and lots of hope for the future. Here's a brief snapshot of the colorful world of wireless.
First of all, this family is the wireless telephone family. It is just starting to compete with the wireless Internet family that includes Wi-Fi and the other 802 wireless IEEE standards. But it is a completely different set of standards. The only place the two are likely to merge is in a marriage of phones that support both the cellular and Wi-Fi standards.
Wireless telephone started with what you might call 0G if you can remember back that far. The great ancestor is the mobile telephone service that became available just after World War II. In those pre-cell days, you had a mobile operator to set up the calls and there were only a handful of channels available.
The big boom in mobile phone service really began with the introduction of analog cellular service called AMPS (Analog Mobile Phone Service) starting in 1981. This generation is 1G, the first for using cell technology that let users place their own calls and continue their conversations seamlessly as they moved from cell to cell. AMPS uses what is called FDM or frequency division multiplexing. Each phone call uses separate radio frequencies or channels. You probably had a 1G phone, but never called it that.
The next generation, quick on the heels of the first, is digital cellular. One standard uses a digital version of AMPS called D-AMPS using TDMA (Time division Multiple Access). A competing system also emerged using CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access. As you might suspect, the two are incompatible but you can have a phone that works with both. Europe embraced yet a third standard called GSM which is based on TDMA. Digital transmissions allow for more phone conversations in the same amount of spectrum. They also lay the groundwork for services beyond simple voice telephone calls. Data services such as Internet access, text messaging, sharing pictures and video are inherently digital.
This is where the whole "G" thing got started. The original analog and digital cellular services were invented to cut the wire on landline phone service and give you regular telephone service you could take with you. As such, the bandwidth they offer for adding data services is pretty meager, in the low Kbps region. Now that a cell phone is not merely a cell phone, but also a PDA, a messaging system, a camera, an Internet browser, an email reader and soon to be a television set, true broadband data speeds are needed. That new generation of cell phone service has been dubbed 3G for 3rd generation.
3G has proven to be a tough generation to launch. The demand for greater bandwidth right now has spawned intermediate generations called 2.5G and even 2.75G. One such standard is GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) which is an extension of the GSM digital cellular service popular in Europe. It offers download speeds up to 144 Kbps.
3G phones and services are just starting to come into their own. One service you'll find is called EVDO which stands for EVolution Data Only. EVDO has download speeds up to 2.4 Mbps, which is faster than T1, DSL or Cable broadband service. There is also an evolution that includes voice called EVDV which is in the works.
While 3G is going to enable telephones to also become Internet computers, video phones and television receivers, its maturity phase will find it competing with wireless VoIP telephone services on Wi-Fi, WiMax, WiTV and the new wireless mobile standard 802.20, which doesn't seem to have a catchy name yet. The slug-fest between analog wireline phone service and wired VoIP seems likely to be continued on the wireless front.
There is also an emerging cellular standard you should be aware of called 4G. The fourth generation being championed in Japan will boost the data rates to 20 Mbps. These speeds enable high quality video transmission and rapid download of large music files. The first 4G phones may appear as soon as 2006. That means we better starting thinking about what to do with 5G if this generation thing is going to continue.
A good reference for the cellular generation standards can be found at Wikipedia and you may also enjoy reading some telephone history.
this information was borrowed from http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid40_gci1078079,00.html?bucket=ETA&topic=299722
Most families have a rich history of great accomplishments, famous ancestors, skeletons in the closets and wacky in-laws. The wireless scrapbook is just as dynamic. There is success, infighting and lots of hope for the future. Here's a brief snapshot of the colorful world of wireless.
First of all, this family is the wireless telephone family. It is just starting to compete with the wireless Internet family that includes Wi-Fi and the other 802 wireless IEEE standards. But it is a completely different set of standards. The only place the two are likely to merge is in a marriage of phones that support both the cellular and Wi-Fi standards.
Wireless telephone started with what you might call 0G if you can remember back that far. The great ancestor is the mobile telephone service that became available just after World War II. In those pre-cell days, you had a mobile operator to set up the calls and there were only a handful of channels available.
The big boom in mobile phone service really began with the introduction of analog cellular service called AMPS (Analog Mobile Phone Service) starting in 1981. This generation is 1G, the first for using cell technology that let users place their own calls and continue their conversations seamlessly as they moved from cell to cell. AMPS uses what is called FDM or frequency division multiplexing. Each phone call uses separate radio frequencies or channels. You probably had a 1G phone, but never called it that.
The next generation, quick on the heels of the first, is digital cellular. One standard uses a digital version of AMPS called D-AMPS using TDMA (Time division Multiple Access). A competing system also emerged using CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access. As you might suspect, the two are incompatible but you can have a phone that works with both. Europe embraced yet a third standard called GSM which is based on TDMA. Digital transmissions allow for more phone conversations in the same amount of spectrum. They also lay the groundwork for services beyond simple voice telephone calls. Data services such as Internet access, text messaging, sharing pictures and video are inherently digital.
This is where the whole "G" thing got started. The original analog and digital cellular services were invented to cut the wire on landline phone service and give you regular telephone service you could take with you. As such, the bandwidth they offer for adding data services is pretty meager, in the low Kbps region. Now that a cell phone is not merely a cell phone, but also a PDA, a messaging system, a camera, an Internet browser, an email reader and soon to be a television set, true broadband data speeds are needed. That new generation of cell phone service has been dubbed 3G for 3rd generation.
3G has proven to be a tough generation to launch. The demand for greater bandwidth right now has spawned intermediate generations called 2.5G and even 2.75G. One such standard is GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) which is an extension of the GSM digital cellular service popular in Europe. It offers download speeds up to 144 Kbps.
3G phones and services are just starting to come into their own. One service you'll find is called EVDO which stands for EVolution Data Only. EVDO has download speeds up to 2.4 Mbps, which is faster than T1, DSL or Cable broadband service. There is also an evolution that includes voice called EVDV which is in the works.
While 3G is going to enable telephones to also become Internet computers, video phones and television receivers, its maturity phase will find it competing with wireless VoIP telephone services on Wi-Fi, WiMax, WiTV and the new wireless mobile standard 802.20, which doesn't seem to have a catchy name yet. The slug-fest between analog wireline phone service and wired VoIP seems likely to be continued on the wireless front.
There is also an emerging cellular standard you should be aware of called 4G. The fourth generation being championed in Japan will boost the data rates to 20 Mbps. These speeds enable high quality video transmission and rapid download of large music files. The first 4G phones may appear as soon as 2006. That means we better starting thinking about what to do with 5G if this generation thing is going to continue.
A good reference for the cellular generation standards can be found at Wikipedia and you may also enjoy reading some telephone history.
this information was borrowed from http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid40_gci1078079,00.html?bucket=ETA&topic=299722
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