The third generation (3G) mobile communication system is the next big thing in the world of mobile telecommunications. The first generation included analog mobile phones [e.g., Total Access Communications Systems (TACS), Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT), and Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)], and the second generation (2G) included digital mobile phones [e.g., global system for mobile communications (GSM), personal digital cellular (PDC), and digital AMPS (D-AMPS)]. The 3G will bring digital multimedia handsets with high data transmission rates, capable of providing much more than basic voice calls.

This book was written to provide the reader with an information source that explains the principles and the basic concepts of the most important of the 3G telecommunications systems—universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) or Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)—in an easily understandable form. Some comparative information on the other 3G systems (the most important of which is CDMA2000) appears in the early sections of the text, but the UMTS/3GPP version of 3G is the largest and most important of the 3G initiatives, and it is the primary subject of the book. All the significant 3G versions serve to protect their corresponding 2G system investments. Since UMTS/3GPP is a GSM extension, and 2G is mostly about GSM [not code-division multiple access (CDMA) or timedivision multiple access (TDMA)], UMTS plays a key role in 3G.