Mobile communication technology is a term that is basically given to the technology used as the communication mode for the portable devices such as cellular phones, laptops, palmtops, digital assistants, global positioning systems, wireless card payment systems etc.
There are many technologies that are used in communication of these devices such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), GSM services (2G and 3G), GPRS, Bluetooth, Virtual Private Networks, dial up modems etc. Using these technologies, one can easily communicate from office, home, car and even while traveling. Using the web or WAP services to access internet either on phone or laptops is known as mobile computing which is also considered as a part of mobile communication technology.
Some of the foremost technologies that are used in the field of Mobile Communication can be listed as:
1. GPRS: General Packet Radio System is a mobile technology that uses GSM services for data communication. It is mainly used for providing the data services on cellular devices. One of the drawback of GPRS service was its slow connectivity, but with the coming up of 3rd Generation of GSM, the speed limit has been increased and the data transmission has become quite fast. GPRS holds a unique feature by which a user can very easily transmit the data while making calls.
2. EDGE: Enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS is a technology having the faster data transmission rate as compared to GPRS. If the EDGE network is not available in some places, then there GPRS service is used as a replacement of EDGE.
3. Wi-Fi: Wireless fidelity is the technology that uses wireless technology communication for the data transmission; previously Wi-Fi was only used with laptops and palmtops but now-a-days it is also used with modern cellular phones that have Wi-Fi services. The benefit of using Wi-Fi technology is transmission speed as it can support up-to 100 Mbps.
4. Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a technology that is used for the transmission of data between devices in a small range of 100 meter. The network formed from by Bluetooth devices is known as Piconet. The Bluetooth technology can be used to create connections between multiple devices resulting in machine to machine communication. At one time, seven devices can communicate via Bluetooth.
5. GSM: Global System for Mobile communications is a technology used for digital cellular networks used for second generation technology but later it is succeeded by 3G to increase the speed of circuit switched network. GSM network works on different frequencies for 2G and 3G.
• 2G GSM network operate in 850 Mhz or 1900 Mhz frequencies. • 3G GSM network operate in 2100Mhz frequency
Key features of 3G are video calling, video download, transfer the large amount of data at a very high speed.
Apart from these, there are many other technologies such as VPN which is used to access external networks by a secured channel.
The benefit of mobile technologies is that it makes our life very easy as we can access data resources and services from any part of the world. But at the same time, it faces certain problems as well such as network problems, security issues and cost of data services. But with advance in technology, these problems are gradually decreasing and mobile communication technology is making our life very easy