 customers improves the likelihood Mobile Carriers Worldwide that providers will earn adequate profits to fund upgrades. In certain countries, govern- ments have relaxed or stated their intentions to relax rules against mergers and restric- tions that prevent carriers from providing nationwide coverage. Governments play a vital role in not only promoting competition but also ensur- ing that there are not SO many providers that few of them have an incentive to upgrade their networks. Mobile networks have the potential to lift the economy by providing a vehicle for carrying innovative services that create new business opportunities for entrepreneurs. However, they are capital-intensive businesses that require large invest- ments and a stable infrastructure. Glossary 2G (second-generation cellular 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership service) Program 2) Based on digital access to cellular net- An analogous group to 3GPP, but it is work- works. GSM and CDMA are 2G cellular ing on evolving technical specifications for CDMA2000 networks. technologies. Obase-T 3G (third-generation cellular service) An IEEE specification for unshielded, twisted- 3G mobile standards specify techniques that pair cabling used for Ethernet LANs that are capable of supporting more voice traffic transmit at 10Mbps. The distance limitation and broadband mobile multimedia (speech, for 10base-T networks is 100 meters. audio, text, graphics, and video) services. 100base-T There are three main 3G services, including An IEEE standard compatible with 10base-T WCDMA, CDMA2000, and UMTS TDD. for transmitting at 100Mbps over unshielded See also 3GPP and 3GPP2. twisted-pair cabling on LANs. 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership 802.11 Program) A set of IEEE standards for LANs. 802.11a, A collaborative group that is developing an 802.11b, and 802.11g are the most common agreement to jointly create technical speci- ones and are used in homes to share Internet fications for maintaining LTE, GSM, GPRS, access, in enterprises, and in hotspots. and EDGE and for evolvi