Um…ok. So it wasn’t the Tech of the Week. Try Tech of the Month? Ok? Thanks for understanding. The holidays were a lot of fun, with a LOT of new toyz, soooo…The ‘Boi had to play. But you’ll be happy. I have played with a LOT more toyz to write about now, including the most excellent NXT Personal Robotics System one of the kids nabbed. The future is really here. You dig it the most! =|:-)>
So, back to the TotW(m)…wireless broadband. Lot of things have happened in a month in this area, but let’s first fold space and travel back to the time of the bag phone. Cellular networks grew out of two basic technologies: plain old two-way radio and switched signaling. When you can get a device to make two or more connections to a network at the same time, then you can hand off calls from one tower to the next as people get their move on, ya dig?
Ok, run forward to late in the era leisure suit, when switching and signaling technology went digital. That meant you could move voice over digital networks. Several methods were created for carrying digital calls, all competing for the hearts and minds of consumers and handset makers. And if it is digital, it can carry anything…sooooo….
Slide over to a time when Big Hair ruled the earth, and you’d be right at the start of the Internet Age, when data started to really mean something to the masses. When modems ruled the day for computers, rockin’ speeds around 2400 baud, wireless data was just starting to take shape in the labs.
Getting to the 21st Century, 3G data services reached speeds of up to 700Kbps, comparable to wireline DSL. Of course, you’ll pay for it dearly, but if you got a spare Grant per month, you can enjoy near-broadband speeds in the middle of nowhere.
While the dust isn’t really settled yet, there are two current winners in the mobile data standards game: CDMA, backed by the mega-corp Qualcomm, and GSM, backed by a consortium of companies. Just like the metric system, us Yanks seem to be missing something when it comes to picking a winner in the standards race. Stateside, the majority of mobile subscribers are on CMDA networks (Verizon, Sprint, Alltel), while the rest of the world has standardized on GSM technologies. Only one major US provider uses GSM: ATT. So, let’s do the math. ATT has the most subscribers of any carrier in North America, and they are on the major global standard (CDMA 421 million, GSM 2.6 million).
Now, think about it, and stay tuned to our next episode: Money likes to Make More Money.
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