Right now the hot topic in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh is 3G facility in telecommunication sector. Some days back the auction of 3G has been conducted and besides only one telecom provider named City Cell, all the other major telecom operators have already entered the 3G market. The top telecom providers Robi and Grameen Phone will start the 3G service during October, 2013. Though their service will not cover the whole country within this time frame but they are only planning to cover some key areas of the capital Dhaka. The good thing is that government has already given one time frame to all the operators and within that time frame all the operators who has the license of 3G spectrum need to cover maximum area of the country with their network. There are a lot of discussions related to 3G in Bangladesh. People who are not related to technical sector, also have some wrong idea about this 3G. To clear some idea and to explain some basic things related to 3G I have started writing this article today. Lets start the article with very basic things related to 3G.
What is 3G?
To explain from very basic, “3G means third generation”. So, 3G means third generation telecommunication technology. Before 3G the telecom network we were using or using right now is 2G or 2.5G. The basic difference between 3G and 2G is the high data speed in 3G. In 2G, the technology used to transfer data is GPRS or EDGE. But in 3G the technology will be UMTS, WCDMA or EV-DO. The data rate in 3G is far more better than 2G and the speed is around 10 times more in 3G.
In 2G, we can only talk but as the data speed is not high, we cannot use video at the same time while talking. That is why are cannot use Skype video calling or cannot watch live TV while using 2G. But if 3G is in action, we will be able to talk and see at the same time. This will be amazing, right?
After reading this, if you think that WoW! Great! now Bangladesh is having the latest technology of telecom world then you are not right at all! The technology of 3G is not new at all. 3G was introduced 13 years back on 2000 in Japan. After 13 years we are getting 3G and still not in full swing. So, you can imagine we are far behind from the developing world. We cannot even think of those technologies which are used in developed countries.
Now one question will come naturally, if 3G is not the latest technology in the world of telecommunication then which one is the latest technology in the telecom field? The answer is LTE (Long Term Evaluation). The data rate is far more high in LTE. A lot of developed countries have already started using this LTE technology. Some advanced version of this technology like LTE – A (Long Term Evaluation – Advanced) is already implemented in the field of telecommunication.
Developing world is thinking of Machine to Machine (MTC) communication using this LTE-A. 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is working on this project. MTC is a very interesting part in the field of communication. If you want to learn more about MTC then you can read my article : Latest Technology Of 2012 : Machine To Machine Communication
Let us again come to our point which is related to 3G… . So, what are the facilities that we will get from 3G facility in Bangladesh? Below are the expected facilities from 3G:
1. We will get high data speed in 3G. Those who do not understand technical term like “high data rate” for them, we will be able to open one page using internet within a very short time, we will be able to download one file within a very short time, we will be able to watch YouTube videos without any buffering (you will be able to enjoy the YouTube video directly), you will be able attach one file to your email within a very short time etc.
2. We will get the facility of video calling. Applications like Skype provide us the facility to make a video call. 3G will allow us to do this from our mobile handset. Which means that if you are in university and your mother is at home or if you are at office and your wife is at home, using Skype or other application in your cellphone, you will be able to make a video call and see your mother or wife back at home. These things will happen in real time. A sample 3G Skype video call is below:
You will be able to listen internet radio or Internet TV. This will be a beginning of new era in the communication. Can you imagine, you will be able to watch any TV from all over the world on your Mobile handset?
What are the Limitation ?
1. All the facilities that I have described above, need a mobile handset which can support all these facilities. The mobile handset which can support all these facilities of 3G is called SMARTPHONE. From my point of view the main limitation to use the facility in Bangladesh is the mobile handset. Only a few percentage of people in Bangladesh are using smartphones. As the price of the smartphones are not really reasonable, the smartphones are still not that much available in Bangladesh. Though a major percentage of people in Bangladesh are using mobile phones are the mobile phones are very cheap, but the smartphones are still not that reasonable. Though some cheap China made smartphones are in the market, but general people are not interested to buy those.
To spread the service of 3G among the common people of Bangladesh, operators at first should take initiative to market some cheap smartphones to the market, so that common people can buy those smartphones and can avail the facility of 3G.
2. Another point which can make 3G service a luxury to some people is the video calling charge. Because the operators are going to invest a lot of money and already spend a lot of money while purchasing the license of 3G. So, to get the money they will impose a high rate to the 3G services and video calling facility. Also the data charge will also be very high which i can tell from previous experience.
3. The other problem is network support facility. Though there are a lot of telecom providers but their service is not good to some locations. They also cannot take load when the traffic is huge. So, if the problem persists then the situation will become severe that before. Because there will be more data transfer in 3G than 2G. So, you can imagine the situation.
Besides all these Bangladesh is entering a new era of telecommunication. We can expect that the telecommunication operators will meet their and peoples expectation.
