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What is the 3GPP?

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunication associations, to make a globally applicable third generation 3G mobile phone system specification within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 3GPP specifications are based on evolved Global Systel for Mobile Communication (GSM) specifications.

3GPP standardization encompasses Radio, Core Network and Service architecture.
The groups are the European Telecommunications Standarts Institute, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses/Telecommunication Technology Committee (ARIB/TTC) (Japan), Alliance for Telecommunications
Industry Solutions (North America) and (South Korea). The project was established in December 1998.
3GPP should not be confused with 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GGP2), which specifies standards for another 3G technology based on IS-95 (CDMA), commonly known as CDMA2000.
The 3GPP has specified the following standards:

  • GSM
  • GPRS
  • GERAN
  • WCDMA
  • HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA)

3GPP2 was born out of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) International Mobile Telecommunications “IMT-2000” initiative, covering high speed, broadband, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based
mobile systems featuring:

  • network-to-network interconnection,
  • feature/service transparency,
  • global roaming,
  • seamless services independent of location.

IMT-2000 is intended to bring high-quality mobile multimedia telecommunications to a worldwide mass market by achieving the goals of increasing the speed and ease of wireless communications, responding to the
problems faced by the increased demand to pass data via telecommunications, and providing “anytime, anywhere” services.

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