1xRTT
1x (single-carrier) Radio Transmission Technology
The first in a family of cdma2000 1x digital wireless standards designed to extend and replace the original IS-95 CDMA 2G standard. 1xRTT is sometimes referred to as a "2.5G" standard.
1xRTT was replaced by 3G technologies such as 1xEV-DO, and 4G technologies such as LTE.
Compared to the IS-95 CDMA technology it replaced, 1xRTT offered increased network voice capacity. This benefit required support on both the base station (tower) and handset (phone). If everyone using a given tower has a 1xRTT phone, twice as many people can use that tower at the same time, compared to the old IS-95 standard.
1xRTT also offers much faster data speeds compared to IS-95. The initial release - release 0 (zero) - supported data speeds peaking at 144 kbps. Typical real-world speeds were closer to 60-80 kbps.
A second release of 1xRTT was planned - release A - which doubled data rates at 288 kbps peak. Many carriers chose to skip 1xRTT release A, however, and move directly to the much faster 1xEV-DO, a 3G technology.
See: 1xEV-DO
See: CDMA
