Celltech

3G: More Bandwidth, More

Speed, More Applications
3G has tremendous potential in terms of content and services. It also provides
enhanced voice quality. But penetration of 3G usage is influenced by a variety of factors

Shweta Dhadiwal 3G is the oxygen for mobile content There are a variety of factors that

I

and services. There is a tremendous will influence the usage of 3G network.
n simple words, 3G means more potential in terms of value-added Some already have solutions, while
interesting applications, more services and revenue which is yet to others still need some thought.
multimedia and more fun. 3G be explored. “3G is a big pipeline. You
network allows a very high data have to find an application in this pipe- Cost of the handset
rate, which, in turn, will push line for enhanced user experience,” “When we talk about 3G, multimedia
the growth of content and services that says Rahul Sharma, CEO of Micromax and entertainment will come out to be
require high-speed data transfer. To Informatics. 3G will enable services the strongest application area,” informs
avail all this, of course, you need a 3G like ‘live’ TV for cricket and bollywood Dhiraj Soni, head, product group mar-
phone and a 3G network. But not all updates for the masses and applica- keting, Sony Ericsson.
the services offered by 3G are meant tions like video conferencing for the It’s not just the 3G-compatible chip
for everyone. professionals. that contributes to the high price of the
handset. Most 3G phones
need to have a good-qual-
ity display, good camera
and good-quality audio.
Let’s say, you want to
watch a live TV pro-
gramme commemorating
Sachin’s 20 glorious years
in international cricket.
You will need a good dis-
play and audio other than
high-speed data transfer
in order to actually enjoy
the live TV broadcast.
The purpose of video
conferencing is to let you
see the person who is
talking from the other
end. You need a camera
that can capture clear
images, a highly respon-
sive software to digitise
the picture and then,
of course, 3G network
to transmit the pictures
in real time. Many 3G
phones have two cam-
eras, one at the back for
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 3G phone regular image capturing

9 0 • F e b r ua ry 2 0 1 0 • e l e c t ro n i c s f o r yo u w w w. e f y m ag . co m
Celltech
and the other at the front for video
conferencing. This adds to the price of
the phone.
The applications based on 3G are
either provided by the service pro-
vider or bundled with the handset by
the manufacturer. Most 3G handsets
come with inherent software tools
required for 3G applications. If you
intend to use a particular application
and you do not have it on your 3G
phone, you may download it from the
manufacturer or service provider’s
site. For example, if you do not have
the video conferencing software, you
may need to download it. But if your
media player is capable of streaming
a video provided by the telecom op-
erator, you may view live TV directly
without downloading any other soft-
ware. For watching a video online,
you will require Flash memory and a
mobile Internet browser.
Tasks at hand
“We are still in the world of DOS with mobile world,” rightly said Sangeet Chowfla, chief
strategy officer, Comviva, at IAMAI’s Mobile Content and Services Conference. There
are several challenges in terms of use of technology.
Most low-cost handsets cannot run high-end applications. The solution suggested
by Chowfla includes remote applications by means of mobile cloud technology. In this
technology, the complexity of the application is pushed to the network rather than the
handset.
Another big challenge is too many mobile platforms. Mobile phones are available
on a variety of operating systems such as Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, RIM
OS and Apple OS, and they use different mobile Web browsers. Embedded application
developers need to make use of cross-platform or multi-platform tools so that their
application is independent of the mobile handset.
Mobile Web faces the limitation of screen size and keypad—the two handset features
that play an important role for many applications. Content on the Web needs to be
formatted to fit the screen size of the handset and make scrolling easy. The application
too needs to be user-friendly.
Chowfla shares, “The next-generation applications are driven by data. Data plans are
enemy of data applications as users do not understand whether 1 kbps of data permits
receiving e-mail or watching a video.” It’s easier for users to understand one rupee per
SMS. Conveying technical information simply so that a common man can understand
it poses another big challenge.
A research shows that there are 37 per cent English literates in urban India. Going
by this number, there is a need to develop regional language content and related audio-
visual applications.

Interoperability and 3G features, you need a 3G mobile or HSDPA technology.

backward compatibility
There is a lot of confusion about inter-
operability and backward compatibil-
ity when we talk about moving from
2G world to 3G world. If you buy a 3G
mobile phone that fascinates you, but
you do not have a 3G network in your
area, it will not be of any use. You will
be able to do only what you could do
with your 2G phone. You need a 3G
network to be able to receive 3G con-
tent and services. Keep in mind that
not all networks are created equally.
So if you are planning to buy a 3G
cellphone, make sure that the opera-
tor offers 3G network and service in
your area.
Service operators provide you with
a separate 3G SIM card to use with the
3G phone. It’s only with a 3G-enabled
SIM that you can enjoy 3G services.
“You can use a 2G SIM card in 3G
phone without any problem. You will
be able to use all the features of 2G and
2.5G but not the 3G features,” explains
Anil Kaushik, vice president-executive,
Fly Mobile. You can also use a 3G SIM
in your 2G handset, but it will allow
you to use only 2G features. To avail
handset with a 3G SIM card.
Varied base technologies
Although it does not make a recognis-
able difference to people who use 3G
for fun, various 3G technologies play an
important role in providing high-speed
data. “In CDMA, 3G is provided by evo-
lution-data-optimised (EVDO) technol-
ogy. EVDO provides improvised data
rates from revision 0 (Rev 0) to revision
A (Rev A) and then revision B (Rev B).
As of now, all the operators in CDMA
space have EVDO Rev A technology,”
informs Kaushik. EVDO Rev A provides
maximum download speed of 3.1 Mbps
and uplink speed of 1.8 Mbps.
about GSM standards (for 3G it
is 3GSM or UMTS), he says, “GSM
has adopted WCDMA technology for
3G. HSDPA and HSUPA are the other
high-speed transmission technolo-
gies accepted by GSM standards.” A
speed of 384 kbps can be achieved
with WCDMA technology, but with
high-speed downlink packet access
(HSDPA) the downlink speed can be
as high as 14.0 Mbps. Currently, 3G
handsets are either based on WCDMA
What’s on offer?
We have been talking a lot about 3G
offering high-speed Internet and more
and more data-based applications. But
with 3G you can have better-quality
service for voice calls too. 3G technolo-
gies will offer efficient spectrum usage
to accommodate more and more users.
“As more and more urban people
move from 2G to 3G, the vacated space
in 2G will give a way to increase rural
telephony,” explains Kaushik. The op-
erators would like to add more custom-
ers to the freed-up 2G spectrum. “As
2G is an already established network,
the cost of 2G services is expected to
come down. This will also increase the
Internet penetration via 2G to the rural
India,” foresees Kaushik.
Talking about availability of the 3G
network, Soni adds, “As of now, you
only have BSNL and MTNL providing
3G services. When the auction hap-
pens, and when bigger operators start
operating 3G services, the real story of
3G will start for majority.” 
The author is a senior technology journalist at EFY

9 2 • F e b r ua ry 2 0 1 0 • e l e c t ro n i c s f o r yo u w w w. e f y m ag . co m