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The new bands of mobile phones: 3G, NextG and HSDPA

By Nathan Taylor

So you've been hearing a lot about this 3G thing. All the telcos have been making a big noise about all the extra things you can do with a 3G phone and a 3G service, and you've decided you want in.

Well, before you can dive into the world of 3G, you're going to need a 3G phone. 3G phones are typically rather more complicated than standard GSM phones because they can do much more. Music and video playback, similar to that found in portable music players like the iPod, is now de rigueur in 3G phones, and because one of the key capabilities of 3G is fast internet access, web browsing and email support is also found in nearly every 3G phone. A camera and video talk capabilities are necessary, along with a client for viewing streaming television.

Of course, the other stuff that you always looked for in a mobile phone is still important: how it looks, how it feels and how easy it is to send text messages and the like. Before buying a mobile, it's always worth asking the seller if you can have a play with the product before laying down your money. Too often mobile phone manufacturers elevate form over function, or vice versa, and finding a mobile phone that strikes the right balance for you can be a challenge indeed.

3G, Next G and HSDPA

Although 3G has been around for quite a few years now, there's a goodly proportion of the general populace that still has no idea what it is or what it can do for them. The easiest way to explain 3G is to say that it's broadband for your mobile phone. It doesn't make voice calls any better, improve text messaging or do much to speed up emails. What it does do is allow you to access the internet from your mobile phone at broadband speeds, or plug your phone into a notebook computer and access the internet from it. It allows you to download things, like music or video, from the internet or your phone provider at high speeds. It also allows you to watch live TV streamed from your network provider to your mobile phone and to make video calls (that is, calls where you see as well as hear the other person) using your mobile.

HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) is 3G on steroids. It doesn't really allow you to do anything that 3G couldn't, but it does what it does faster. You get faster internet access, videos and music download to your PC quicker, and the quality of television streamed to your mobile is higher. Where standard 3G services were equivalent in speed to, say, a 256 kilobit ADSL connection, HSDPA connections are more on par with 512 kilobits or even 1.5 megabit connections. Theoretically, current HSDPA services can reach 1.8 or 3.6 megabits, though you'll never get those speeds in practice.

HSDPA is an evolution of 3G, and any phones that support it will support regular 3G services as well (just as a 3G phone will also be backward compatible with older GSM networks).

At present, all the major phone networks have 3G networks and are rolling out HSDPA services, with Telstra the farthest along. Telstra calls its HSDPA network 'Next G' (probably because HSDPA is such an unfriendly term), while the others a tending to stick with HSDPA when describing their network capabilities. Vodafone and Optus support for HSDPA is primarily found in the major metropolitan areas, though they are planning to roll out HSDPA across their entire networks.

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