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Evolution from 2G over 3G to 4G

In the past 15 years, fixed line and wireless telecommunication as well as the Internet have developed both very quickly and very slowly depending on how one looks at the domain. To set current and future developments into perspective, the first chapter of this book gives a short overview of major events that have shaped these three sectors in the previous one-and-a-half decades. While the majority of the developments described below took place in most high-tech countries, local factors and national regulation delayed or accelerated events. Therefore, the time frame is split up into a number of periods and specific dates are only given for country-specific examples.