Rastradhoj Karki

In telecommunications or most other technologies, the capital 'G' stands for a generation: the numbers before 'G' represent the version of the technology: the higher, the better.

History

Now, let us talk a bit about the past of telecommunications, back to when Alexander Graham Bell invented the first working telephone. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. He came to the US as a teacher of the deaf.

He figured out how to transmit an electric current and received a patent for that invention on March 7, 1876. Five days later, he conveyed actual speech. Sitting in one room, he spoke into the phone to his assistant in another room, saying the now-famous words: Mr. Watson, come here. I need you.

The telephone patent is one of the most valuable patents ever issued. Bell had other inventions as well: his own home had a prototype to modern-day air conditioning, contributed to aviation technology, and his last patent, at the age of 75, was for the fastest hydrofoil invented at that time.

0G

Wireless telephone started with 0G, which became available after World War II. In those days, the mobile operator sets up the calls and, there were only a handful of channels available. 0G refers to pre cellular mobile telephony technology in the 1970s, such as Radio telephones that some had in cars before the advent of cell phones.

The mobile radiotelephonic system produced modern cellular mobile-telephone technology. Since these were predecessors of the First Generation of cellular telephones, this system is called the 0G (Zero Generation) System.

0.5G

0.5G is a group of technologies with an improved feature than the old 0G technologies. The core part is that 0.5G was open for commercial use and recognized with unique telephone numbers, unlike 0G, which depends on closed radio channels.

1G

The first generation of mobile networks (1G), launched by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in Tokyo in 1979. By 1984, NTT had rolled out 1G to cover the whole of Japan.
In 1983, the US approved the first 1G operations. Motorola DynaTAC became one of the first mobile phones to see widespread use stateside. Other countries such as Canada and the UK rolled out their own 1G networks a few years later.

However, 1G technology suffered from several shortcomings. 1G was analog technology. Coverage was poor and sound quality was low. There was no roaming support between various operators and different systems operating on different frequency ranges- there was no compatibility between systems. Worst of all, calls were not encrypted, so anyone with a radio receiver could drop in on a call.

2G

2G (or 2-G) is short for a second-generation cellular network. 2G cellular networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991. Finally, the calls could be encrypted, increasing security and creating a variety of new communication possibilities for different industries.

Meanwhile, voices were carried with much bigger clarity, reducing static sounds and other background noises.
Initially, 2G transfer speeds did not exceed 9.6 kbit/s. By the time the 2G era ended, 40 kbit/s had become a reality. EDGE technology offered up to 1Mbps. Even though the speeds were slow compared to what we know today, back in the 1990s, 2G revolutionized telecommunications.

3G

The first global pre-commercial launch of the 3G network was in Japan by NTT Docomo in 1998 and branded as FOMA. The first commercial launch of the technology happened on October 1, 2001- also by NTT Docomo in Japan. It was the first country to implement a widespread 3G network system.Nepal was the first country in south-east Asia to implement 3G services.

Eventually, the 3G network had adopted by telecommunication companies across countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa.

The 2G network took force and brought forth some necessary changes like improved call clarity, more traffic volume, reduced power requirements, and sleeker handsets. It was the first paving stone for 3G adoption.
What finally lead to the global adoption of 3G technology was the internet boom of 1998.

The demand for mobile internet skyrocketed during this time, and the market accepted 3G. The data rates in 3G were as high as 2 Mbps and up to 384 Kbps for a device in a moving vehicle, which allowed mobile phone users to video call and high-speed internet, even on the move.

4G

4G is the term for the fourth generation of cellular networks, succeeding 3G. Currently, 4G is the widely used generation of wireless
mobile networks. During the early 2000s, there had been several talks and proposals for 4G. Eventually, it came to a mutual decision that the next generation should evolve instead of a revolution. That is why 4G, based on its previous 3G network, only enhanced with a new technology called Long Term Evolution
or LTE.

In 2004, NTT Docomo of Japan proposed LTE as the international standard. On May 6, 2011, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel demonstrated 4G LTE for the first time in South Asia, achieving a data rate of 96 Mbit/s.

5G

5G has not been implemented in many countries yet. There are plans to deploy 5G around the globe, replacing 4G slowly but surely. The companies who are researching 5G are: Samsung, Huawei, LG, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Nokia, ZTE Corporation, NEC Corporation, Verizon, Orange, AT&T, Cisco Systems and others.

4G requires large, high-power cell towers to radiate signals over longer distances. 5G signals transmit through several cell stations located in places like light poles or building roofs. The speed of 5G is around 50 MB/sec to reaching GB/sec.

The use of multiple small cells is necessary because of the millimeter-wave (MM wave) spectrum. The spectrum between 30 and 300 gigahertz (GHz) that 5G relies on for high speed: can travel over short distances and is subject to interference from weather and physical obstacles, like buildings or trees.

6G

It is a lot to take in 6G, with 4G widely used and 5G is slowly replacing 4G. So, to state some facts about 6G. 6G will eventually replace 5G, but 6G is not yet a functioning technology and is instead in the early research phase. The speed of 6G expects to be around 100 times faster than 5G (~ 8000 GB/sec to 1 TB/sec), which is insanely fast on present day's standards. Many companies like Apple, Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, LG, ZTE, Qualcomm, NTT Docomo, and others have already started their research on 6G.

China has begun the 6G development as soon as it had just implemented 5G. Other countries like the US have started their research on 6G, so they do not fall behind in this technological race.

In the end, 6G is way faster than devices right now. But 6G is used for ambitious projects like self-driving cars, artificial Intelligence, face recognition, health, virtual reality, edge computing, drones, smart cities and military and many others.

The tasks above are done by 5G, but 6G has faster data transfer making the time taken between communications low, making it much more efficient. Things communicating among themselves in the internet is called the Internet of Things (IoT).

Technology and everything around us change every decade. It is safe to say you can expect 6G within the next decade (~ 2030). These new generations of technology will drastically change the views of the people living in this world. Nowadays, without technology, we have reached a point where it is hard to imagine life without it.

(The writer is a student )