Mobile And Wireless Basics

What is "bandwidth"?

Bandwidth really is the amount of data that can be passed through at one time. Because when data is transferred, it's transferred in bits and bytes and pieces. And the faster you get them there really depends on how many you can push at the same time. So, with the pipeline being smaller, with narrower bandwidth, it takes longer for the data to get there.

What is "broadband"?

Broadband basically gives the customer the ability to download items such as emails, video messages, text messages, files, at a fast rate. You now have the ability to tether your mobile device to your desktop and transfer files between the two, for presentation purposes and what not, and so you ned a fast, broadband connection. For instance, there's a software package that you can download from BlackBerry that actually allows you to transfer files to your remote desktop and to your computer at home. So that you can actually use your desktop computer on your hand held mobile device and screen, and download files, share photos, audio files, documents, PowerPoint presentations, all of that stuff. And in order to do that you have to have a fast enough broadband connection to support it.

What is "roaming"?

Roaming is basically if you're with Carrier A, and Carrier A owns a piece of the network, and you go somewhere where there's no Carrier A, you have to roam on Carrier B. That's basically utilising someone else's network because they're saying that you can. It's like a written agreement that the carriers have put in place beforehand, and in doing so, the carriers get charged and pass that charge on to you, which is why there are roaming charges. Typically now though, you don't see carriers that have roaming charges within the United States because everybody's pretty much sharing networks now and everybody has an agreement, so the data charges that get incurred, as far as roaming goes, basically happen mostly internationally. So, when you're in France, and you're using a French network vs. a U.S. network, you would get charged the same.

What is "beaming"?

Beaming is just the use of infrared data to transfer information wirelessly. Beaming is like sign language between two devices. They can talk to each other in a way that we can't actually see. Beaming is just a beam of invisible light that gets transmitted. And the impulses that are made in beaming translate into the zeroes and ones that would make up the data that's being transferred to the second device.

What is the difference between an "analog" and a "digital" signal?

The difference is, is that analogue is the exact wave. Because when sound is created, it's created in the wave format. Digital however, takes that wave and approximates it. So digital is making guesses as to where the next point should be on the wave and by doing so you don't get as clean as sound with digital as you would with an analogue signal. However, there's less data being transferred by a digital signal because the approximations can be compounded into smaller pieces of data.

What is "wireless fidelity" (Wi-Fi)?

Wi-Fi is basically a wireless networking technology that's used in homes and offices to allow people that have devices with Wi-Fi receivers to transmit data over a network. As far as mobile devices are concerned, what they're doing is using the Wi-Fi to complete telephone calls, by transmitting the same packets that would be sent over a larger network inside the smaller Wi-Fi network and that can be faster and more efficient.

What is "bluetooth"?

For mobile and wireless basics, Bluetooth is a wireless networking technology that allows users to connect to their devices locally, similar to Wi-fi but the difference is that Bluetooth pairs connect with one device at a time. So, the instances that you see Bluetooth most are now with mobile phones and wireless earpieces. They make a connection with each other, both having a name, with no two names being alike. The devices then talk to each other constantly via an encrypted transfer process that they use.