Concept of 3G

There will be a wide range, from simple single-application devices such as voice-only phones, to multi-purpose communicators capable of handling several voice, data and video services in parallel.

To date, the "terminal" for accessing mobile services has been the mobile phone. With the coming of 3G, we can expect to see a broadening of this concept to include a whole host of new terminals. These will be both general-purpose computing and communications devices, and devices with more specific purposes to serve particular marker segments. There will still be recognizable mobile phones. But many of these will have larger screens to display Internet pages or the face of the person being spoken to. There will be smaller "smart-phones" with limited web browsing and e-mail capabilities. The addition of mobile communications capabilities to laptop and palmtop computers will speed up the convergence of communications and computing, and bring to portable computing all the functions and features available on the most powerful desktop computers. There will be videophones, wrist communicators, palmtop computers, and radio modem cards for portable computers. Innovative new voice based interfaces will allow people to control their mobile communication services with voice commands.

We will also see the integration of 3G into a very wide range of devices and products other than user terminals. For example, the "telephone-on-a-card" will allow mobile services to be built into business equipment, vehicles and household appliances, for dedicated applications. Devices such as phones, computers and digital cameras will also be able to communicate with each other using short-range radio. Digital cameras will be able to use wide-area radio communications in real time and reduce the need for bulky memory and other components.