"Mr. Internet's" journey from 1G to 5G via 2.5G

Those days are not far when we would be seeing driverless cars moving around sans human drivers, with the passengers inside completely oblivious of the outside traffic as though they were still inside their homes or workplaces. And en route to their destination, commuters could easily command their air-conditioners to start cooling or instruct their coffee machines to start brewing their favourite cappuccino with which they would sip away their exhaustion after reaching home. All this and much more shall be accomplished with the upcoming 5G technology. BUT WAIT! Won't it be both enticing and educating at the same time if I take you through the evolution of the wireless communication system, from 1G to 5G?

History of wireless communication

It’s a universally known thing that the first wireless telephonic conversation took place in 1880. Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter invented the first telephone. It was a photophone as it transmitted signals over a beam of light and thus, needed sunlight. Also, it could only operate so long as there was a clear line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver. The invention of the diode by Fleming in 1908 and that of the transistor by Shockley paved the way for the development of integrated circuits and subsequently, electronic systems.

The advent of 0G

YES! It all starts with nothing. And I am sure many of you don’t know what 0G is! It was a communication system used by the cabbies in the USA to stay connected among themselves. The system worked on transceivers (combination of radio transmitter and receiver) and at a time a person could either speak or listen.

Welcome 1G

It referred to the first generation of wireless cellular networks. It was first introduced in the 1980s. Unlike its successors, it was Analog in nature. It worked on FDMA technology, i.e, Frequency Division Multiple Access. Unfortunately, it could only be used for calling as its abysmally low speed of 2.4kbps didn’t allow it to offer much to us.

Tread like 2G

Although we have travelled far from 2g yet India still has as many as 300 million 2G subscribers. It worked on the principle of TDMA(Time-division multiple access), GSM(Groupe Speciale Mobile), or CDMA(Code Division Multiple Access). It was launched for the first time in 1991 in Finland. Its major advantage over 1G was that it was digital, which meant less distortion—less interference—less noise. Also, besides calling, it supported SMS services. Its internet speed was again on the lesser side(around 64 kbps). To overcome this shortfall, GPRS was introduced into the scene.

The game-changer 2.5G

It is synonymous with GPRS(General Packet Radio Service). Its primary purpose was to provide internet data services while still using 2G. Using GPRS we could get speeds up to 128kbps.

Getting busy with 3G

3G was an improvement over 2.5G GPRS. It was commercially launched for the first time in 2003 by Hutchinson Telecoms. It provided faster data transfer with speeds up to 3mbps. We could now use mobile phones for video calls and streaming videos without downloading them. It also provided new features such as “mobile roaming” and “emergency services”.

4G With VoLTE

4G is the fourth generation of wireless communication systems. It could best be described in a single word ” MAGIC”, which stands for Mobile Multimedia Anytime Anywhere Global mobility support, Integrated wireless, and Personalised Services. It allowed us to experience broadband-like speeds without broadband. It is entirely IP-based, which means that it uses the internet even for making voice calls. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a type of 4G that delivers the fastest internet speeds.

It was launched in the year 2009 and has been in use since then. It can offer speeds of up to 30mbps. Its successor, 5G, is being claimed to be a potentially disruptive technology. Let’s find out why!

Revolution, thy name is 5G

5G is the fifth-generation wireless technology. It uses higher frequency bandwidth which enables it to provide higher speeds, and lesser latency, and connect more devices, all at the same time. It can be 100 times faster than 4G with zero latency. It's so fast that it would allow downloading movies in a matter of seconds. It would enable connectivity among various devices and realise what is known as— internet of things, popularly known as IoT. South Korea was the first country to adopt 5G technology in 2019.

5G means a safer future

According to a World Bank report, India losses 1.5 million people in road accidents annually. 75% of them are in their prime working-age, i.e., 18-45 years. Automatically driven cars would mean less human interference and consequently lesser accidents. 5G could also be effectively used geo-spatial technologies and meteorology to track changes on earth such as climatic variations and tectonic activities.

Conclusion

Development in wireless technology is a continuous process with a newer generation replacing its predecessor in roughly a decade. How long would it take before along with data even humans could also be transmitted? Is that even possible? Whatever your answers are… before teleportation becomes a reality, why not enjoy the poignant closeness on digital screens?