The International Telecommunications Union first proposed the development of third-generation cellular technology as a global standard to solve this problem.

AT&T and other wireless carriers are pushing a third-generation technology called EDGE.

The changes at British Telecom coincide with efforts among European phone companies to ease the cost of third-generation technology by circumventing competition rules and sharing networks.

And European governments are already beginning to distribute new radio licenses for a third-generation technology that would be fast enough to transmit video and high-resolution pictures.

However, second-generation technologies and third-generation technologies depend on further promotion by the public sector.

The companies say the licenses are crucial to the roll-out of the so-called third-generation hand-held technology capable of cruising the Internet at high speeds.

At the conference, the countries rejected setting any particular standards, agreeing instead to leave it to governments to choose the best available spectrum for third-generation technology.

Such growth is expected to come in part from advanced services made available by so-called third-generation technology, like wireless video transmission.

The real goal is wireless broadband, true third-generation technology, where the bandwidth is measured in Megabits.

The second- and third-generation technologies benefit from use of a microchannel plate - essentially, glass with millions of microscopic holes in it - to multiply the electrons.