What is 3G?

waynegohl

waynegohl

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Ok I know it is a stupid question as it has been around for years now but what is it actually?
Do you need a special sim card to get 3G or is it a sort of frequency you pick up? Do you need to be on a contract somewhere or can it work with prepaid too?

Talk slow but type fast as I am in my twilight years and want to know what all a person can do with 3 or 4G before I pass on.
 
Heard of Wikipedia?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G ;)

Pre-paid would be your best bet. If you want a contract get one of the top-up contracts which allows you to manage your spend. However if you don't need to be mobile you might just be better off with ADSL, way more bang for buck than 3G at the moment. I would also hang on to see what Cell C comes up with when they get their network off the ground.
 
waynegohl said:
....and so are the days of our lives.
Click to expand...

Lol,

Basically 3G is speed measurement.
You do not need a special sim. Your phone or modem however, should support 3G.
You do get 3G speeds on contract as well as prepaid.

You do need to be in a 3G coverage area though.

What are you planning?
Are you thinking about getting 3G internet?
Do you just want to know more about 3G?
 
McGuywer thanks you speak my language. i just wanted to know when it comes to cellphones as my daughter who went back to USA had an ipod touch and we were discussing the new iphone with video calling and the such and we discussed 3G. i thought it was something special that only certain phones had and it was a special sim card.

so it basically is a kinda network with a fast speed and with the new 4G it just makes it faster i assume?
 
you are correct in one sense...only some phones have 3G capability ( more and more decently priced phones should have 3G at least these days. Do take care that it includes HSDPA, as normal 3G is in the region of 384Kbps if i remember correctly.

So your criteria should be :
Do you have 3G coverage where you intend to use it( remember each network (Voda/MTN/Cell-c) have different towers and hence different signals.
Do you have a 3G capable cellphone / modem (HSDPA is recommended as this allows you to reach a higher speed(think 7.2Mbps advertised currently).
Your sim card should be compatible either way( usually takes a call to customer care to enable data on the sim, and also load data bundles pending on the amount you need.

4G is a possible upgrade on 3G, but has not been reached yet... cell-c is advertising a completely incorrect naming for its product. It will most likely be a high speed version of 3G, but i wont trust a network which doesnt have at least some customers and/or feedback.
 
Back in the day when phones came out, they were on 2G (or GSM)
You can access a 2G network if your phone can pick up that frequency (which most phones can) (900 and 1800 in South Africa)

3G works on a different frequency and different technologies are used to make data browsing faster. (2100MHz) (and now 900Mhz for cell c)

2G and 3G don't have much of a difference with voice calls (from a users perspective), the main difference is the data speeds.

4G will just have faster data speeds.

If your sim is an old 8k one, you may have difficulty with 3G. But the sims you get now days are compatible with both 2G and 3G.

Your phone has to be 3G capable in order for you to use 3G.

HSDPA is just an even faster version of 3G.
 
thanks guys and gals for the info. it's all very interesting once you make it easier to understand.
 
waynegohl said:
thanks guys and gals for the info. it's all very interesting once you make it easier to understand.
Click to expand...

and you get a Noddy Badge for daring to ask the question.... I'm on a learning curve! Thanks waynegohl.....:}
 
In layman's terms, it's a set of standards which allow your mobile device to achieve even faster data rates.
 
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