What is the meaning of 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G?

In short, 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless technology stands for first, second, third and fourth generation respectively. From what I recalled, my dad used to use brick size mobile phones during the early 90’s which he used during work. These generation phones are analog phones introduced in the 80’s. My first glance on a decent and “slick” phone during the late 90’s was probably a 2G mobile phone. And guess what, it was a Nokia 3310, the phone that I first used in my late teen years. Nobody told me that it uses digital networks but I do know that you can use that phone to text messages. The digital nature of the 2G network made it more difficult to eavesdrop (listen without speaker’s knowledge) on mobile phone calls. Currently, the standard network being used is 3G. 3G is more advantageous than 2G networks in terms of speed and quality. This standard of wireless networks increases the speed of internet browsing, picture messaging, video messaging, and GPS use. 4G wireless technologies are beyond 3G network. Just like other generation, 4G has higher speed in transmitting data than 3G network. One of the objectives of a 4G network is to become a fully IP-based system like a modern computer networks.