3g Vs Wifi

The biggest and the most important development that has impacted and is still developing the telecommunications field is the unparalleled growth of mobile telephone and internet services. The benefits of data communication through the email and the web, has been widely enabled with the help of the internet, whereas mobile services has enabled “stay connected anywhere” telephony. Now these two different technologies are converging and offering much better services interactive multimedia services along with the mobility of the wireless phones. While 3G offers a top-down, service provider approach to deliver wireless internet access, WiFi offers a decentralized approach centered to the end-user. 3G is a technology for the mobile service providers who own and operate their own wireless networks and sell to the end-users, their mobile services. 3G is the latest generation of mobile technology and can support high bandwidth digital communications. The chief focus of wireless mobile services has been shifted from only voice telephony to voice telephony and data services. 3G can support data services from 380 kbps to 2 Mbps.

Although these rates are below that offered by the current DSL or cable modems, it is expected to grow and support higher bandwidths in future. WiFi is the popular name for the wireless Ethernet 802.11b standard for WLANs. These operate in the unlicensed spectrum of 2.4GHz band. Current generation of WiFi technology supports up to 11Mbps of data transfer within 100m from the base station. These are deployed as a part of a bigger private network in a campus or a corporate. The base station is mostly manned by the end-user community. Since the coverage of each base station is only about a couple of hundred meters, contiguous WiFi connection is given using multiple base stations connected in the outer perimeter of the base station. Unlike mobile services, WiFi’s were mainly centered upon supporting data communications. However, with growing interest, it is possible to support voice telephone services through WiFi’s.

Though one might think WiFi’s and 3G are different, they have many common features. The first and foremost similarity is that both are wireless, thus avoiding the need to install cables and helps in mobility. Since both are wireless, they both can be scaled up. Both can be installed swiftly and with less installation cost and manpower. Since these both are wireless, they offer more mobility by letting the equipments to be moved wherever the end user wants and the ability to stay connected even around vast areas. Both the technologies are edge-networked technologies. Both the technologies offer broadband data service, although the data transfer rates may vary and almost always the WiFi will surpass the 3G. The key feature is that a range of useful and common features are supported by the two technologies, including voice, data and media streaming real-time.

With so many similarities, let us see how different they are now. Firstly the business models and the deployment models are different. 3G is the most preferred technology to upgrade or expand capacity over existing telephone services. Here service providers own and manage their own infrastructure and sell the service upon that infrastructure. Whereas WiFi has evolved from the computer industry and the makers usually sell the infrastructure to the end-users in terms of boxes etc. the spectrum policy and management is different in both the technologies. WiFi services are long established than the 3G network in OECD countries. Voice services are better in 3G technology as they were designed particularly for those attributes.

Thus we can find a future development in integrating both these technologies to create better services in voice and multimedia so as to benefit the end-user. None of the two technologies can be left out for the other.

By: shary123

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Visit UK mobile broadband site to find exclusive guides on Mobile Broadband Coverage, Wireless Mobile Broadband, Mobile Broadband Speed and Pay Monthly Mobile Broadband.