Cellular communication standards
Cellular technology has evolved approximately every 10 years.
1G – Introduced in the 1980s, first generation (1G) standards used analog standards.
2G - Introduced in the 1990s, the second generation (2G) standards switched from analog to digital standards. 2G provided speeds up to 1 Mb/s and supported higher call quality. 2G also introduced Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).
3G – Introduced in the late 1990s, third-generation (3G) standards enabled speeds up to 2 Mb/s to support mobile internet access, web browsing, video calls, video streaming, and picture sharing.
4G – Introduced in the late 2000s, 4G standards enables speeds of 100 Mb/s and up to 1Gb/s to support gaming services, high-quality video conferencing, and high-definition television. Long Term Evolution (LTE) adds improvements to 4G.
5G – Introduced in 2019, 5G is the latest standard. It is more efficient than previous standards and may support speeds up to 20 Gb/s.