ng and Interactive Multimedia operators. They were also prohibitively expensive and lacked national coverage. It was the mid 1990's when 1G analog cellular phones made way for Second Generation (2G) technologies that introduced digital voice encoding and the first major branch in competing international mobile standards. The three major competing 2G standards were: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), also known as "Digital AMPS" (D- AMPS) or ANSI-136, which delivered services in the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) also called IS-95. The code division technology was originally developed for military use decades earlier, using code sequences as traffic channels within common radio channels deployed in 1.25 MHz increments. Global Services Mobile (GSM) was introduced as the mobile phone platform used in Europe and much of the rest of the world -- though not as widely deployed in the USA. GSM networks operate in the 900Mhz and 1800Mhz ranges in Europe and in the 800MHz and 1900MHz ranges in the US. Since their inception, 2G technologies have improved and evolved to offer increased bandwidth, enhanced packet routing, and an infrastructure capable of supporting limited mobile multimedia applications. The present state of mobile wireless communications is often called "2.5G", which implies something better than 2G but not yet good enough to be Third Generation (3G). Some examples of 2.5G technologies are GSM/GPRS and CDMA 1xRTT digital networks. These networks support mobile digital data as well as voice calls and (among other things) have given to the phenomenon of digital messaging, also known as the text messaging, Short Message Service (SMS) and mobile Instant Messaging (IM). Core upgrades in 2.5G networks opened the door to mobile applications like email, limited web surfing, and other entertainment services. Although theoretically capable of data rates in excess of 100KB, typical 2.5G connection rates are less than 56Kb, and often less than 20Kb in congested areas. Which