1G

For other uses, see 1G (disambiguation).

1G (or 1-G) refers to the first generation of wireless telephone technology (mobile telecommunications). These are the analog telecommunications standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued until being replaced by 2G digital telecommunications. The main difference between the two mobile telephone systems (1G and 2G), is that the radio signals used by 1G networks are analog, while 2G networks are digital.

Although both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system, the voice itself during a call is encoded to digital signals in 2G whereas 1G is only modulated to higher frequency, typically 150 MHz and up. The inherent advantages of digital technology over that of analog meant that 2G networks eventually replaced them almost everywhere.

One such standard is NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), used in Nordic countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Russia. Others include AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) used in North America and Australia, TACS (Total Access Communications System) in the United Kingdom, C-450 in West Germany, Portugal and South Africa, Radiocom 2000 in France, TMA in Spain, and RTMI in Italy. In Japan there were multiple systems. Three standards, TZ-801, TZ-802, and TZ-803 were developed by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), while a competing system operated by DDI (Daini Denden Planning, Inc.) used the JTACS (Japan Total Access Communications System) standard.

The antecedent to 1G technology is the mobile radio telephone, or 0G.

History

The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G generation) was launched in Japan by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nationwide 1G network.

In 1981, the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system simultaneously launched in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. NMT was the first mobile phone network to feature international roaming. In 1983, the first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago-based Ameritech using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada.

See also

• List of mobile phone generations
• Mobile radio telephone, also known as 0G
• 2G
• 3G
• 4G
• 5G
• Comparison of analog and digital recording
• Wireless Application Protocol Browser

External links

• Glossary: 1G - First Generation wireless technology
• Glossary: Detailed Description on 1G Technology

Preceded by 0G

Mobile Telephony Generations

Succeeded by 2G