1G

Mid-1980’s

AMPS

• Provision of basic mobile voice services
• Analog technologies

2G

1992+

GSM, TDMA, iDEN, CDMA

• Higher voice capacity
• Low-speed circuit switched data services (9.6 kbps)
• Digital technologies

2.5G

2000+

GPRS / EDGE (GSM), 1xRTT (CDMA-2000)

• Addition of low to medium speed packet switched data services (25 – 153 kbps)
• Higher voice capacity (1xRTT)

3G

2004+

EVDO, UMTS

• Higher voice capacity (UMTS)
• Higher rate packet data (100 to 2400 kbps)

3.5G

2005-2008

HSDPA, HSUPA (UMTS) EVDO Rev. A, B  (CDMA-2000)

• Higher rate packet data services
• (HSDPA:  Peak of 1.8 Mbps, evolving to ~14 Mbps)
• Higher rate uplink data (HSUPA:  1 Mbps peak evolving to 5.8 Mbps peak)

4G

2007-2010

WiMAX-Mobile (802.16-2005), UMTS Long Term Evolution (UMTS-LTE), EVDO Rev. C

• Higher packet data rates
• All-IP network (hence predicted to be less expensive)
• OFDM technologies