Technology 2000 – 2010
3G Telecommunication Industry
Development of broadband services for Voice and Data
from 2000 until 2010
The definition of third generation mobile communications emerged in the 1990s triggering developments of the new standard. UMTS, Universal Mobile Communication System was defined as the successor for GSM and GPRS. It was already available in 1999. At the same time, the wideband CDMA, which is also used in UMTS, was introduced in Asia.
Qualcomm developed its own successor for their CDMA system called CDMA2000. So it happened that the goal of defining a uniform global 3G standard was not achieved.
CDMA2000 was soon introduced in the United States. This accelerated the adoption of mobile Internet. Instead of going straight to UMTS, the GSM providers, especially in America, initially expanded their systems to 2.5 G, i.e. GPRS/EDGE. UMTS was noticeably delayed and was introduced slowly starting 2004. However, the “killer application” was missing and 3G was initially not accepted. Only when noticeably higher bit rates were achieved with HSDPA, UMTS got a breakthrough and replace GPRS/EDGE. From 2007 onwards, the main drivers for high bit rates were smartphones, which gradually replaced feature phones.
After the turn of the millennium, there was strong growth in mobile communications despite the technology crisis of March 2000. China and India became the largest markets for mobile communications. But states like Russia and Brazil also became more important than the European countries. Mobile networks have also been established in Africa. However, the new Chinese infrastructure providers, such as Huawei, particularly benefited from this growth. Infrastructure manufacturers in Europe and North America went through a period of consolidation that ultimately left only three manufacturers: Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Network and Alcatel-Lucent.