Mobile Broadband : A Short Guide
Mobile broadband is defined as broadband access (e.g. cable and DSL) in the cellular environment. Wireless internet has been around for a number of years but mobile broadband has only recently (within the last few years) become popular due to the costs involved. Mobile broadband is a step up from local wireless data applications such as WiFi which gets rid of the wire, but not the confinement. A user must be stationary and in a WiFi hotspot (generally inside) when using WiFi technology. WiFi could be considered as the data transfer counterpart of the cordless telephone, whereas mobile broadband corresponds to the cellular phone, which enables access to high speed data almost anywhere in the world. Wireless communication has become the standard for the business world. Remote wireless internet connection is becoming more and more popular each day and has changed the way businesses communicate internally and externally. It truly has become a wireless world.
Mobile broadband technology such as 3g is powered by the same technology that makes cell phones work. It is all down to radio waves and their frequencies. Mobile phones and the mobile-phone radio towers communicate with each other by sending packets of digital information to each other through radio waves. With standard telephone calls, the packets of information carry only voice or audio data. For mobile broadband, the packets of information would be other types of data such as e-mails, web pages, streaming video and music files.
Mobile broadband was initially quite slow compared to a WiFi connection, though constant improvements have meant that speeds have increased dramatically, listed below are the chronological order of mobile broadband advancements:
-2.5g, or EDGE as it is more widely known, was the first form of mobile broadband, though take up was low as the packet transfer speeds were so low.
-The second format that was introduced was 3g, known on GSM formats as UMTS. Though transfer speeds were also quite slow, it began to offer users an alternative to using WiFi.
-Following 3g was HSDPA. It is quite fast, though not as fast as WiFi.
-The current format of HSUPA. With speeds similar to WiFi connections, it is offering users a very good alternative to WiFi.
A new format that is currently being developed is called WIMAX. WIMAX, or 4g, will be able to give users broadband connection speeds faster than the WiFi speeds currently offered in popular hotspots. It will also have a very wide network coverage ratio, which means more people being able to access the internet from more places. It is becoming commonplace for laptop manufacturers to incorporate mobile broadband receivers into the design of new notebooks, and with the huge increase in speeds of mobile broadband over the last few years; internet via cable may become a thing of the past.
