3G
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Telecom
| Stands for | Third generation of mobile telephony |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
3G stands for Third generation of mobile telephony, a telecom abbreviation.
Mobile networks that brought practical mobile internet, video calls and app downloads to phones in the 2000s, using technologies such as UMTS/W-CDMA and CDMA2000 with speeds from hundreds of kilobits to several megabits per second.
Example: Grandma's old phone stopped working when the carrier shut down its 3G network.
Usage notes
NTT Docomo launched the first commercial W-CDMA network in Japan in October 2001; in 2000, UK and German auctions for 3G licenses raised tens of billions of pounds and euros. Apple's iPhone 3G (2008) was named after the network. Major US carriers switched off 3G in 2022, and many European operators followed, so phones without VoLTE lost the ability to make calls.
Related abbreviations
More telecom abbreviations
- 10DLC – 10-digit long code
- 1G – First generation of mobile telephony
- 2G – Second generation of mobile telephony
- 3GPP – 3rd Generation Partnership Project
- 4G – Fourth generation of mobile telephony
- 5G – Fifth generation of mobile telephony
- 6G – Sixth generation of mobile telephony
- 802.11ac – IEEE 802.11ac (Very High Throughput Wi-Fi)
- 802.11ax – IEEE 802.11ax (High Efficiency Wi-Fi)
- 802.11be – IEEE 802.11be (Extremely High Throughput Wi-Fi)
- 802.11n – IEEE 802.11n (High Throughput Wi-Fi)
- A2P – Application-to-person