3G? What's That?

VoiceStream Wireless

Total Hold Time: 25 seconds

Transfer/IVR Layers: 3

CSR: Thank you for calling Voice-Stream, where you get more. This is (name). How may I help you?

WR: I've seen some things in the paper about 3G. What is 3G?

CSR: On behalf of VoiceStream?

WR: No, just on wireless phones in general.

CSR: I have no idea what 3G means. I've never heard of it.

WR: There are supposed to be some new kinds of services with 3G wireless phones.

CSR: I didn't hear anything like that.

WR: Do you know if anyone there knows anything about it?

CSR: No, we haven't heard anything like that.

Qwest Wireless

Total Hold Time: 10 seconds

Transfer/IVR Layers: 1

CSR: Thank you for calling Qwest Wireless. This is (name).

WR: What is 3G?

CSR: 3G?

WR: Yes.

CSR: That's something new for me. Was that being put out by Qwest

WR: No. I've seen articles in the general press talking about new kinds of wireless services that are coming out, and they always talk about 3G.

CSR: OK. Just a second, let me check on that for you.

CSR puts WR on hold for 3 minutes.

CSR: I really don't have any information on that for you. Do you know if that's a data item, you know, like for the computers?

WR: It has something to do with new services that wireless carriers will be offering in the future.

CSR: Your best bet would be to check places like Radio Shack and Circuit City. They would be better able to answer your questions on something like that.

WR: But it has to do with wireless services.

CSR: Well, see, Circuit City and Radio Shack, they do carry cell phones and are set up with the cell-phone companies as distributors. So they are able to set up accounts and actually have that information at hand. That is information that I don't even have myself, yet.

Sprint PCS

Total Hold Time: 35 seconds

Transfer/IVR Layers: 4

CSR: Hi. My name is (name).

WR: I've been seeing a lot in the papers about 3G, and I just wanted to know what that is.

CSR: 3G stands for third generation, and it's the next level up for this type of industry that we're in, the wireless industry. The third generation means we're going to another level.

WR: What kind of services will I be able to get, and when will they be offered?

CSR: They're offered now. You can use your handset to get on the Internet, to send text messages, to download the weather in different areas or your area, get stock quotes, things like that, and pager information. There's a lot that you can do wirelessly. We have a card now that you don't need to hook up to an actual phone system in order to access the Internet with your laptop computer. It's just like a phone, but it's a card.

WR: You said 3G is the next step up, but then you said that you're doing it now. What's different?

CSR: Right. We're starting. That card is one of the things that's different. I don't think there's anyone else that's offering that, except for Sprint. But they're working on other things too, that are not being offered yet. That's why I said it's the next step up, but we are starting to offer the third-generation type of wireless options to our customers now.

WR: Will 3G phones be more like my computer?

CSR: We're trying to offer you access to anything that you would normally have to hook up to a wire but make it wireless.

WR: And when are the new services coming out?

CSR: I don't know, because I don't even know what they're going to be. The technicians and whoever comes up with these ideas, they're working on them. I have no idea what they're going to be.

3G Defined

3G — an International Telecommunication Union specification for the third generation of mobile communications technology. Analog cellular was the first generation, digital PCS the second. 3G technology promises increased bandwidth, up to 384kb/s when a device is stationary or moving at pedestrian speed, 128kb/s in a car and 2Mb/s in fixed applications.

Webopedia (webopedia.internet.com)