1G


1G refers to the first generation of wireless cellular technology. 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 cellular systems, 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 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 everywhere.
One such standard is Nordic Mobile Telephone, used in Nordic countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Russia. Others include Advanced Mobile Phone System used in North America and Australia, TACS 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, while a competing system operated by Daini Denden Planning, Inc. used the Japan Total Access Communications System standard.
The antecedent to 1G technology is the mobile radio telephone.

History

The first commercially automated cellular network was launched in Japan by 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 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.
As of 2018, a limited NMT service in Russia remains the only 1G cellular network still in operation.