Mobile Broadband – Convenient, Portable & Flexible
September 1st, 2010Mobile 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. The recent improvements in mobile broadband technology has meant that businesses can communicate with their employees and customers much more efficiently and effectively that ever before, changing the business environment quite drastically. Wireless broadband is shaping the business world.
Mobile broadband works in a similar way to mobile phone communications that use radio waves and frequencies to send and receive data. This digital information is sent in packets to and from the cell phones and telephone communication towers. With standard mobile telephone calls, the data that is transmitted and received is only in an audio format. Alternatively, the digital data that is communicated through cell phones and towers is in various formats such as web page data, audio data, visual data such as videos and also emails.
There are a few different types of mobile broadband, which can make life confusing. Below is a list detailing them:
-The first form of mobile broadband was EDGE, also known as 2.5g. Though it was quite slow and expensive, so take up was poor.
-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.
-Currently HSUPA is the standard, with bandwidth similar to WiFi speeds.
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. With the constantly improving mobile internet access speeds, accessibility to the internet is increasing non-stop. In ten years we could begin to see a reduction in the number of people signing up to cable DSL, instead turning to companies offering mobile broadband connections. It would be possible to have just one internet service provider that you could access from anywhere in the world, on any type of device, from PCs to consoles to PDAs.
