1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,760
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

3
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:12,879
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot Com. Join Josh

4
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,280
Speaker 1: and Chuck, the guys who bring you stuff you should know,

5
00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:17,680
Speaker 1: as they take a trip around the world to help

6
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,720
Speaker 1: you get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out

7
00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from

8
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,240
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes.

9
00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:32,800
Speaker 1: Hi there, everybody, welcome to tech Stuff. My name is

10
00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,240
Speaker 1: Chris Polette. I'm an editor here at how stuff works

11
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:37,360
Speaker 1: dot com and sitting next to me as usual as

12
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:44,080
Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan Stricklandoha. All right. I wasn't expecting that.

13
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,479
Speaker 1: I know you weren't. All right, well, so so why

14
00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,120
Speaker 1: the aloha? No reason? I just like to change it

15
00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,800
Speaker 1: up every now and then. All right, and multicultural kind

16
00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:54,279
Speaker 1: of guy. I figured you were thinking of pineapples. Now,

17
00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,400
Speaker 1: I think I'll end this with mohallow. I think Mr

18
00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:00,480
Speaker 1: Calicanus will have a word to save. Why don't we

19
00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,840
Speaker 1: move on to our topic? All right, So today we're

20
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:09,039
Speaker 1: going to talk about communications, actually long distance. Maybe maybe

21
00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,720
Speaker 1: somebody will be saying aloha and mahala to you. Yeah,

22
00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:17,080
Speaker 1: perhaps some roaming. Yeah, because we're gonna talk about cellular communications.

23
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,880
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of emails come in about, you know,

24
00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:24,160
Speaker 1: discussing things like the two G network, the three G network,

25
00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:29,120
Speaker 1: the uh, the the eagerly awaited four gene network. Uh

26
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,200
Speaker 1: kind of too, sort of demystify these terms, kind of

27
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,320
Speaker 1: explain what they mean, and uh, why you should be

28
00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,520
Speaker 1: concerned about what kind of phone you have or if

29
00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:41,360
Speaker 1: you should be concerned. Um, and yeah, some of this

30
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,880
Speaker 1: came from just from the last year's release of the

31
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 1: iPhone three G, which caused a lot of confusion among

32
00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:51,560
Speaker 1: I would say, lay people who aren't really familiar with

33
00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,720
Speaker 1: the whole two G three G thing in the first place. Right. Well, yeah,

34
00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:56,800
Speaker 1: I mean it's really not all that surprising when you

35
00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,560
Speaker 1: think about it, because Apple for a while there um

36
00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,440
Speaker 1: was releasing new generations of IBM S power PC processors,

37
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:05,400
Speaker 1: and they'd have they had the G three and the

38
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,560
Speaker 1: G four Max. Right, So so you know, it makes

39
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:12,000
Speaker 1: sense that people would be a little surprised. Um. You know,

40
00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 1: I actually had somebody right in and say, hey, that's

41
00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,320
Speaker 1: a picture of the three G iPhone, not the second

42
00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:22,480
Speaker 1: generation iPhone. Well, the second generation, second generation iPhone is

43
00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 1: the three because it's not three G, it's G three

44
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 1: or wait two right, G two? So yeah, alright, so

45
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,680
Speaker 1: here's where this whole confusion. See even we get confused,

46
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,120
Speaker 1: and it happens to the best of us. Um yeah,

47
00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: so yeah, the second generation iPhone is a three G phone.

48
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:42,760
Speaker 1: And that's because the three G does not refer to

49
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:46,880
Speaker 1: the phone's generation, but rather the the technology, the cellular

50
00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:51,040
Speaker 1: technology that phone communicates across right right. As a matter

51
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,200
Speaker 1: of fact, people are wondering what they're rumors right now

52
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,040
Speaker 1: swirling about the next generation iPhone, and they're wondering what

53
00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 1: to call it because it won't be the three G

54
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:01,200
Speaker 1: G three iPhone it that would just be silly. And

55
00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:03,240
Speaker 1: then they're calling it the G four anyway, Well, it's

56
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,160
Speaker 1: not really a fourth generation iPhone. Why don't we just

57
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,799
Speaker 1: call it Steve, Yeah, I think we'll be like that.

58
00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:12,960
Speaker 1: We'll just call it the jobs so um. So here,

59
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,160
Speaker 1: currently in the United States, we're kind of in a

60
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 1: transitionary period where we're going from a two G network

61
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,520
Speaker 1: and into a three G network. Um. Three G coverage

62
00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:25,920
Speaker 1: in the United States is is much better than it

63
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,639
Speaker 1: was this time last year, but it's still it's still

64
00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,720
Speaker 1: one of those things that's growing, um city by city,

65
00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:38,440
Speaker 1: And not every carrier has a three G network. Um.

66
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,560
Speaker 1: This this is technology. I mean, it's stuff that you know,

67
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,080
Speaker 1: hardware and software have to be in place for these

68
00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,880
Speaker 1: networks to work, and not all the carriers are are

69
00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:50,400
Speaker 1: up to speed on that, at least not in the

70
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,640
Speaker 1: United States now. Granted, in other parts of the world

71
00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,720
Speaker 1: they've had three G for a while now and UH.

72
00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:57,440
Speaker 1: And there's certain parts of the United States where they've

73
00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,520
Speaker 1: had it for a while, like San Francisco that you

74
00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 1: know who to thunk it, but other places just got it,

75
00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:07,520
Speaker 1: like within the last twelve months or so now. So

76
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,920
Speaker 1: the different generations, you can kind of divide them up

77
00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:16,640
Speaker 1: by two different things. The technology G they used to

78
00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:22,120
Speaker 1: transmit signals through the cellular network and the speed through

79
00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,000
Speaker 1: UH that those signals have. You know, so like a

80
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,040
Speaker 1: two G phone is going to transmit data and UH

81
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,000
Speaker 1: calls at a lower speed than a three G phone.

82
00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:36,479
Speaker 1: In general, it depends on the It depends on the

83
00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,120
Speaker 1: technology too. It depends on the technology. It depends on

84
00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:40,919
Speaker 1: it actually depends on a lot of things. So we

85
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:42,920
Speaker 1: have to talk in a lot of generalities here, but

86
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,360
Speaker 1: let's let's break it down first. Like I was gonna

87
00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,760
Speaker 1: talk about two G uh, they're there are two predominant

88
00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,840
Speaker 1: technologies in the two G networks. UM. Most of the

89
00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:58,000
Speaker 1: world uses G s M, which is a UH. It's

90
00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:02,719
Speaker 1: based off time division multiple access technology or t d

91
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,480
Speaker 1: M A right, right, So like Europe, Africa, Asia, a

92
00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,520
Speaker 1: lot of these places they're using G s M. But

93
00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,680
Speaker 1: in the good old US of A, we decided to

94
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,800
Speaker 1: kind of adopt another technology, UM and and some of

95
00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 1: the carriers are still using that, and that's called code

96
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:27,320
Speaker 1: division multiple access technology or c d M. A. That's right. Actually,

97
00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,080
Speaker 1: if you're wondering where G s M came came from,

98
00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:33,880
Speaker 1: it's actually from A a French acronym. The a Confederation

99
00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,560
Speaker 1: of European Posts and Telecommunications found of the group speciel

100
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:43,280
Speaker 1: Mobile in two and yes that's two. That's you know,

101
00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,040
Speaker 1: twenty seven years ago, and they're the ones who basically

102
00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,640
Speaker 1: developed the standard known as G s M. And then

103
00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:52,400
Speaker 1: the acronym comes from them. Now for US RAT speaking

104
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,760
Speaker 1: folks as not speaking by that, I mean those who

105
00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:59,880
Speaker 1: speak English or American. If you prefer UM G s M,

106
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:02,799
Speaker 1: we usually just go ahead and knock that out into

107
00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:08,159
Speaker 1: Global System for Mobile Communications. Yeah, so it's not the

108
00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,960
Speaker 1: the the true origin of the acronym, but hey, that's

109
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,640
Speaker 1: how we Americans like to do things, gosh darn it.

110
00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:21,800
Speaker 1: So anyway, these two different technologies, they transmit information across

111
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,840
Speaker 1: radio signals in different ways, and because of that, they're

112
00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:30,039
Speaker 1: not automatically compatible with one another. In fact, they're they're incompatible.

113
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:32,000
Speaker 1: So if you have a G S M phone, you

114
00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,200
Speaker 1: can't necessarily switch to a C d M A network.

115
00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:37,800
Speaker 1: So if you don't have any G s M coverage

116
00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:40,440
Speaker 1: in the area you're in, you're kind of stuck. And

117
00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:41,920
Speaker 1: that was one of the big problems of the US

118
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:43,440
Speaker 1: for a really long time was that a lot of

119
00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,599
Speaker 1: the rural areas had C d M A coverage but

120
00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:49,159
Speaker 1: not G s M coverage. So if you started driving

121
00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,279
Speaker 1: across the United States, you would find big patches of

122
00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,480
Speaker 1: areas where you had no service. Um. Since then, there

123
00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:58,800
Speaker 1: have been some systems put in where you can use

124
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,560
Speaker 1: one phone over an other carriers network, but you usually

125
00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,800
Speaker 1: end up having to pay some pretty big roaming charges um.

126
00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:09,960
Speaker 1: At least until fairly recently, a lot of the phone

127
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,040
Speaker 1: carriers now I've realized that that tends to drive customers away,

128
00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,640
Speaker 1: and so they've they've taken that into account. But yeah,

129
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 1: and in in this case, it's still a matter of

130
00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:23,560
Speaker 1: G s M phones using other GSM networks and c

131
00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,800
Speaker 1: d M A phones using other c d M A networks. Um.

132
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:28,960
Speaker 1: And if you're wondering sort of in a in a

133
00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:34,440
Speaker 1: broad path, which camp your provider falls into. Um, if

134
00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:38,840
Speaker 1: you're using Verizon Wireless or Sprint, next heel, Um, those

135
00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:41,920
Speaker 1: are c d M A and uh T Mobile and

136
00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:46,240
Speaker 1: a T and T are using g s M. Um.

137
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,600
Speaker 1: You can also find out if you if you are

138
00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,960
Speaker 1: blindfolded and or you know, somebody had rubbed off all

139
00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,200
Speaker 1: the markings from your phone and they're not going to

140
00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:56,280
Speaker 1: do that. That's why they subsidize your phone. They put

141
00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:59,440
Speaker 1: their brand all over it. Um. But say you had

142
00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:01,160
Speaker 1: to look at the back of a phone that didn't

143
00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:03,240
Speaker 1: have a brand and go, how would I find out

144
00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:04,880
Speaker 1: which one this is? If you were to take the

145
00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,960
Speaker 1: battery out and look underneath, if it's got a simcard,

146
00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:12,680
Speaker 1: that's as phone. Yeah. The nice thing about g S

147
00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 1: M phones is that if you if you have multiple

148
00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:19,960
Speaker 1: simcards and you have a different simcard for every you

149
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,160
Speaker 1: know cell phone carrier, you can switch those out and

150
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,280
Speaker 1: then you're not even roaming anymore. Like if you move

151
00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,320
Speaker 1: from one carrier's GSM network into another and you happen

152
00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:31,880
Speaker 1: to have a simcard for that carrier, you can switch

153
00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,200
Speaker 1: them out and you're you're just fine. Um. There's still

154
00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:41,239
Speaker 1: some problems if you are traveling overseas because they transmit

155
00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,920
Speaker 1: cellular information on different frequencies. So if your phone does

156
00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:49,040
Speaker 1: not is not capable of transmitting in the same frequencies

157
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,840
Speaker 1: as the carrier around you uses, you're still out of luck.

158
00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:54,640
Speaker 1: It's just not going to be able to communicate with

159
00:08:54,679 --> 00:08:58,280
Speaker 1: the network. That's uh. That's what you see when you're

160
00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,360
Speaker 1: looking at phone specs are looking for a new phone

161
00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,440
Speaker 1: and you see triband or quad band, Um, that's what

162
00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,520
Speaker 1: they're talking about. Or if you see the phrase world phones,

163
00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,560
Speaker 1: that's basically what it's talking about. For GSM. There are

164
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,240
Speaker 1: actually four uh frequencies that I'm aware of that are

165
00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,959
Speaker 1: used in different places around the world. Um. And the

166
00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:20,520
Speaker 1: more frequencies you use, I mean they're still using g

167
00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,680
Speaker 1: s M, but you know, you may or may not

168
00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:25,839
Speaker 1: find a signal. And if you're using c d M

169
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,400
Speaker 1: c d M A, you're gonna have a much more

170
00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:32,440
Speaker 1: difficult time finding a signal. Yeah, especially yeah, traveling abroad,

171
00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:34,760
Speaker 1: because like like we said, c d M A is

172
00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:37,640
Speaker 1: one of those technologies that really got a foothold in

173
00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,480
Speaker 1: the United States and pretty much everywhere else adopted G

174
00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:42,760
Speaker 1: s M. You may wonder why that is. It's because

175
00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,720
Speaker 1: a lot of the European countries, uh, the governments of

176
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:50,440
Speaker 1: those countries mandated a specific technology, and in the US

177
00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:55,600
Speaker 1: that's generally considered kind of anti competitive, and so the

178
00:09:55,679 --> 00:09:58,920
Speaker 1: U S takes a lass a fair approach and they

179
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,200
Speaker 1: decide not to They say, well, you know, we're not

180
00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:06,320
Speaker 1: gonna mandate which one is used, which sounds good except

181
00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:09,400
Speaker 1: for the ends up being kind of confusing for the consumer.

182
00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 1: To make matters even more confusing. You may have seen

183
00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:16,040
Speaker 1: c d M A or G s M under other

184
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:20,320
Speaker 1: code names like E V d O and EDGE. Well,

185
00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,960
Speaker 1: those refer to the different kinds of technology, and they're

186
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:28,360
Speaker 1: actually different forms of three g r UM edges. One

187
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,080
Speaker 1: of them that's probably well known. UM. I think the

188
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,240
Speaker 1: first place I saw it once when they were starting

189
00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 1: to talk about the three G I phone and they

190
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:40,079
Speaker 1: were saying, well, it will be compatible with the Edge network. Um,

191
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 1: they talked about I remember reading articles about how T

192
00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,679
Speaker 1: Mobile wasn't even on Edge yet, and that was one

193
00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:49,160
Speaker 1: of the things with the uh the G one. You

194
00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,040
Speaker 1: may have heard of this, This phone from HTC uses

195
00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,120
Speaker 1: the Google Android operating system. I'm somewhat familiar with it. Yeah, yeah,

196
00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,360
Speaker 1: well they that was one of the things, uh, you

197
00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:01,480
Speaker 1: know that they did. But E V D O and

198
00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:06,880
Speaker 1: Edge are you know next well, theoretically next generation technologies. Yes,

199
00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:10,040
Speaker 1: some might say two point five instead of three. Because

200
00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 1: here's the other thing is that when we're talking about

201
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:16,200
Speaker 1: these technologies, uh, there are organizations that are in place

202
00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:19,160
Speaker 1: to try and standardize these technologies as best they can,

203
00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:23,000
Speaker 1: but you're still talking about a range of capabilities, um,

204
00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,160
Speaker 1: and so it gets kind of confusing. You know. You

205
00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,600
Speaker 1: start seeing things like the two G speeds sort of

206
00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,880
Speaker 1: bleed into the lower end of the three G speeds. Uh.

207
00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,120
Speaker 1: So then you might say, okay, well, this is really

208
00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:36,640
Speaker 1: a two point five G phone or two point seven

209
00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,640
Speaker 1: five G phone, because it's faster than a two G phone,

210
00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:42,640
Speaker 1: but it's not as fast as what three G is

211
00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,120
Speaker 1: supposed to be. Yeah, it definitely does not make life

212
00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:49,560
Speaker 1: easier you know, to understand all this stuff, right, well,

213
00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:52,560
Speaker 1: I mean, just to put some numbers behind it, EDGE,

214
00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,080
Speaker 1: which is UM, the enhanced Data G s M environment.

215
00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,679
Speaker 1: We'll give you speeds of up to kilobits per second

216
00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,280
Speaker 1: from what I understand, But that's on the road to

217
00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:06,199
Speaker 1: what a lot of people are calling the true three G,

218
00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:10,920
Speaker 1: which is Universal Mobile Telecommunication Servers or u MTS or

219
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,040
Speaker 1: is I like to call it. And uh, and that's

220
00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:19,240
Speaker 1: two megabits per second. So um, you know that's that's

221
00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:22,760
Speaker 1: about one and a half times faster. Actually now wait,

222
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:26,800
Speaker 1: never mind, it's like four times faster. Yeah, it's a

223
00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,760
Speaker 1: it's really fast compared comparatively speaking. And we should also

224
00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,280
Speaker 1: go ahead and point out that these these really high

225
00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,800
Speaker 1: end speeds, they tend to be ideals. You know, you

226
00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,040
Speaker 1: don't it's very rare that you're going to actually encounter

227
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:46,200
Speaker 1: that on your own phone, especially if you're moving, If

228
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:48,720
Speaker 1: you are in motion, then you're going to experience lower

229
00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:50,840
Speaker 1: speeds no matter which network you are, and you're not

230
00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:53,920
Speaker 1: going to have the ideal speed. And some of them

231
00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:57,080
Speaker 1: you'll see, like in lab tests, they achieve speeds of

232
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,160
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, blah blah blah, that's because they're being

233
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,040
Speaker 1: still in a lab chair and not driving across town

234
00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:06,520
Speaker 1: when you're having a conversation with a friend. And exactly

235
00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:10,360
Speaker 1: it's in under ideal circumstances, which I don't know about you,

236
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,080
Speaker 1: but I am rarely in what I would consider ideal circumstances,

237
00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,880
Speaker 1: unless I happen to be in Hawaii, in which case

238
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,319
Speaker 1: I often do think I'm in ideal circumstances. The other

239
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:23,839
Speaker 1: the other three G technology besides the U M T

240
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:26,360
Speaker 1: S is a c d M A two thousand. Actually

241
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:28,000
Speaker 1: there are more than just the two, but those are

242
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,200
Speaker 1: the two main ones. And again this is another generation

243
00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:32,400
Speaker 1: of the c d M, a technology which we can

244
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:34,600
Speaker 1: expect to see because the United States doesn't hold you know,

245
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:36,880
Speaker 1: it doesn't like go of stuff that easily. I mean,

246
00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:38,640
Speaker 1: do you remember when we try to switch to metric

247
00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:42,320
Speaker 1: we're still actually we sort of gave up on it. Yeah,

248
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,000
Speaker 1: we totally gave up on it because Yeah, same sort

249
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:46,400
Speaker 1: of thing I think is going to happen here is

250
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:49,120
Speaker 1: that people who have who have this technology are not

251
00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,480
Speaker 1: going to give up on it anytime soon. But um,

252
00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:55,000
Speaker 1: I did read that a T and of course I

253
00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,199
Speaker 1: read this at a T and T S website, So

254
00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:01,440
Speaker 1: take it. Take this however, summer story supply, but A

255
00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:04,160
Speaker 1: T and T said that there are three G speeds

256
00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:07,720
Speaker 1: range from three point six to seven point two megabits

257
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,280
Speaker 1: per second in the lapse and they expect that by

258
00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:13,200
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand nine they'll have it up

259
00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:17,600
Speaker 1: to twenty megabits per second. That's pretty fast. And um,

260
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,760
Speaker 1: that's not fast, no, not compared to four G. Yes,

261
00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:24,800
Speaker 1: is that where you were going, right, I was going.

262
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:26,960
Speaker 1: But we we need to finish three G. I think

263
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:28,960
Speaker 1: we're pretty much done. I mean we could talk about

264
00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:33,240
Speaker 1: I guess next would be a long term evolution, right, yes,

265
00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:35,360
Speaker 1: which is where we're getting into the four G. Yeah,

266
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:39,760
Speaker 1: that's long term evolution or LTT is the four G network.

267
00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:45,400
Speaker 1: And uh speaking of your your reluctance to abandon technologies,

268
00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:47,960
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny because the people who are moving

269
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,560
Speaker 1: to LTE are actually um sort of a hodgepodge of

270
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,680
Speaker 1: different people who are in different technologies now, UM A,

271
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,240
Speaker 1: T and T and Verizon. One of them is GSM,

272
00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:00,840
Speaker 1: the other is c D M A. Both of them

273
00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:04,640
Speaker 1: are saying that they'll have uh LTE networks in place.

274
00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:10,120
Speaker 1: Um by uh, well and I'm saying when they say networks,

275
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,640
Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe not with a capital and network, maybe

276
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:18,200
Speaker 1: like New York and places they're they're usually in scaled rollouts.

277
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:20,680
Speaker 1: So well, I mean, hey, let's let's play a cell

278
00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:23,480
Speaker 1: phone tycoon for a minute. You know, you have you've

279
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,920
Speaker 1: built out this infrastructure that goes across the country more

280
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,600
Speaker 1: or less, and then you have to go update all

281
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:31,600
Speaker 1: that stuff, and you only have a limited budget. You

282
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,000
Speaker 1: know you're gonna hit the big places first where lots

283
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,440
Speaker 1: and lots and lots of people are UM and then

284
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,000
Speaker 1: move it out from there. So the thing is, though,

285
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,120
Speaker 1: that LTE will actually hit um a hundred megabits downstream

286
00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,560
Speaker 1: and thirty upstream. UM. It actually uses a form of

287
00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:49,400
Speaker 1: t C P I P, which is uh the protocol

288
00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:52,640
Speaker 1: over which the Internet travels, and it's gonna be a

289
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:57,680
Speaker 1: lot more like using an Internet network than cell phones

290
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,400
Speaker 1: use now. So it'll be a lot more familiar, is

291
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,400
Speaker 1: what I mean. The technologies are actually sort of and

292
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,360
Speaker 1: to use Jonathan's favorite word converging, Yes, it'll it'll look

293
00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 1: more like a WiFi set up than a cellular setup,

294
00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,840
Speaker 1: although it's not using WiFi. I mean that would that

295
00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:14,680
Speaker 1: would be a nightmare to do that, because you would

296
00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,080
Speaker 1: drop calls every time you walked fifteen feet. Now that

297
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,920
Speaker 1: that's true, but uh, you know it's it's rising and

298
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 1: a T and T moving toward LTE and not another

299
00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:28,120
Speaker 1: famous name, which is embracing a competing technology that we're

300
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:30,640
Speaker 1: all familiar with. It will never be rolled out. In

301
00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 1: my opinion, y Max and Sprint. Sprint is a big fan.

302
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,920
Speaker 1: They're they're teamed up with clear Wire. Actually admire the technology,

303
00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:39,320
Speaker 1: and I hope they roll it out. Didn't they talk

304
00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,120
Speaker 1: about this back in two thousand four something along those lines.

305
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,280
Speaker 1: So wy Max, Yeah, that's that's supposed to be one

306
00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:49,760
Speaker 1: of those last mile solution problem things where you you say,

307
00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 1: how can we deliver uh, Internet connectivity to that last mile, uh,

308
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,960
Speaker 1: the last mile to the customer wirelessly. So it's kind

309
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:03,000
Speaker 1: of like it's it's using a wireless technology that um

310
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,400
Speaker 1: some people call it WiFi on steroids, but that's not

311
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:09,800
Speaker 1: really accurate. Um, it uses a completely different kind of

312
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:13,760
Speaker 1: protocol than WiFi. Uh, there are a certain number of

313
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:17,480
Speaker 1: open spots. Let's say, let's let's just kind of I'm

314
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,000
Speaker 1: going to use an example, kind of a concrete example,

315
00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:21,960
Speaker 1: just imagine this to kind of get an idea of

316
00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 1: how why max works. Think of a round building that

317
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,560
Speaker 1: has forty doors, forty doorways, and as long as one

318
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,280
Speaker 1: of those doorways is open, you can get into that

319
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:35,359
Speaker 1: get in and out of that building, and get whatever

320
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:37,320
Speaker 1: information you need in and out of that building. That's

321
00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:39,320
Speaker 1: kind of the way why max works. Once you hit

322
00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:43,159
Speaker 1: a certain number of of folks hitting that that y

323
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,240
Speaker 1: max server or actually tower, I guess you could say

324
00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,320
Speaker 1: you gotta go somewhere else. So um, but theoretically you

325
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,240
Speaker 1: could serve information at incredible speeds to the people that

326
00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:59,199
Speaker 1: you are allowing into that particular service. I'm kind of

327
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:00,919
Speaker 1: with Pullette here. I don't know that we're ever going

328
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 1: to see this because we've been promised it forever. I

329
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:06,600
Speaker 1: know there's certain cities that are rolling out y max networks,

330
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:11,639
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's um, it was supposed to be everywhere

331
00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,280
Speaker 1: by now, and it just it hasn't arrived yet. UM.

332
00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:17,840
Speaker 1: I think this goes back to the it's really expensive

333
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:21,359
Speaker 1: to roll out expensive, brand new technology to everywhere. Yeah,

334
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 1: putting out a new infrastructure, whether you're talking about communications

335
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: or transportation or you know, fuel or whatever. Anytime you're

336
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:32,879
Speaker 1: talking about rolling out a new infrastructure. That's expensive because

337
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:34,240
Speaker 1: first of all, you got to figure out how you're

338
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,639
Speaker 1: going to incorporate it into the existing infrastructure, and then

339
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:40,000
Speaker 1: you got to build the darned thing, and you gotta troubleshoot,

340
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:41,359
Speaker 1: and you gotta make sure it works, and you gotta

341
00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:43,880
Speaker 1: bring it online. And I mean, it's it's a big,

342
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:46,080
Speaker 1: big deal. It's not like, you know, you flip a

343
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 1: switch and suddenly everyone's on four G. Now. Um, I

344
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,680
Speaker 1: had read a report that said that, uh, that currently

345
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 1: the expectation for widespread adoption of LTE in the US

346
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:03,040
Speaker 1: will will take at least until two thousand twelve. So

347
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,760
Speaker 1: um that would it would surprise me if we got

348
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:07,960
Speaker 1: there by two thousand twelve, considering how long it took

349
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: us to get to three G. But let's hope springs eternal.

350
00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:16,000
Speaker 1: I mean, the recession kind of also plays another nasty

351
00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 1: card into this whole thing. Companies are suddenly worried more

352
00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:21,400
Speaker 1: about staying in business than they are about innovating, So

353
00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:23,920
Speaker 1: we'll have to see how that goes. Um. I did

354
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:27,560
Speaker 1: hear that if you're stationary and you're using a top

355
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:29,919
Speaker 1: of the line for G network, you could expect up

356
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,639
Speaker 1: to one gig a bit per second eventually, which is

357
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:37,040
Speaker 1: that's a lot of data that's really really fast, and

358
00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:40,479
Speaker 1: that's the that's the point at which you're gonna start seeing, uh.

359
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,479
Speaker 1: I think internet convergence versus you know, now you have

360
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,719
Speaker 1: DSL and cable, but at those speeds, so you know,

361
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:52,000
Speaker 1: that's beating out DSL and cable connections. Now even even

362
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,600
Speaker 1: the fiber optic connections are slower than that. And I've

363
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:58,720
Speaker 1: talked a lot about like netbooks converging with smartphones. I

364
00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:00,640
Speaker 1: think at those speeds, you could really you see that happen,

365
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:04,800
Speaker 1: because suddenly cloud computing becomes a really distinct possibility. You know,

366
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 1: you don't connect to a WiFi network, you connect to

367
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,320
Speaker 1: a four G network, You're gonna have much faster speeds

368
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,960
Speaker 1: than you would with WiFi. So at that point, cloud

369
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 1: computing becomes really really attractive because you as long as

370
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 1: you have that guaranteed high speed connection, you can take

371
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,399
Speaker 1: advantage of it. Yeah, that sounds good. I have nothing

372
00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:28,639
Speaker 1: else about cellular phone networks, I know, Thank goodness, because

373
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:30,880
Speaker 1: you know what that means, right, And I can try

374
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,359
Speaker 1: and invent something real quick, hope. Sorry, it's time for

375
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:43,480
Speaker 1: listener mail. Today's listener mail comes from Simon. Simon says,

376
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 1: Hey guys, Hi Simon, I was very intrigued by the

377
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 1: podcast on expensive cables, although without much proof, I've always

378
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:52,560
Speaker 1: maintained that they are probably nothing but a big scam.

379
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,080
Speaker 1: At least if you have an average entertainment system and

380
00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,560
Speaker 1: non bionic ears. You might haven't come in the mail yet.

381
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 1: I do have a couple of ments on the study

382
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,680
Speaker 1: with coat hangers. As you say, it's only five people,

383
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,479
Speaker 1: so obviously not too scientific, but it seems to me

384
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 1: that if two out of five could tell the difference,

385
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 1: that might be a little bit more than just coincidence. Secondly,

386
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,400
Speaker 1: the fact that a coat hanger may produce the same

387
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:17,160
Speaker 1: quality of monster cables can be explained by the fact

388
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:20,360
Speaker 1: that it's made of a very thick wire, possibly capable

389
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: of transmitting more information. I just did air quotes because

390
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 1: he put quotes around that. So in that sense, a

391
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 1: code hanger and a monster cable maybe better than regular cables.

392
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,720
Speaker 1: I love the podcast. Please keep up the great work. Thanks, Simon.

393
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,159
Speaker 1: Great really appreciate that. Um I agree with you, a

394
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:41,159
Speaker 1: sample size of five is not scientific at all. You

395
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 1: can't call that scientific. It was really more of an experiment,

396
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,720
Speaker 1: like in the very loosest sense of the word, not

397
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: in the scientific sense. Um. As for as for uh,

398
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:57,400
Speaker 1: a a thick wire carrying more information, Uh, you know, yeah,

399
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,400
Speaker 1: heavier gauge wire is capable of carrying a higher charge.

400
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,160
Speaker 1: I mean that makes sense. Um. But it also keep

401
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 1: in mind that the the coat hangers had no shielding,

402
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,480
Speaker 1: so there was nothing to shield it from any interference,

403
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 1: which is another one of the claims that high end

404
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: cable UH manufacturers will make. They'll say this, these cables

405
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 1: have a lot of shielding on them, and therefore the

406
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 1: signal will be pure and you will you won't lose

407
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,640
Speaker 1: anything from the source to the destination. Yeah, that's true.

408
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,840
Speaker 1: And um, of course, the point is that not that

409
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 1: monster cables are complete under fraud. They're actually very good cables.

410
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:35,320
Speaker 1: It's just that, uh, most people say, well, lesser cables

411
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:39,120
Speaker 1: can handle the same treatment or are are as good

412
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,680
Speaker 1: in certain circumstances. So you know, it's not a complete right,

413
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 1: you know, you're not wasting your money, it's just you're

414
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,520
Speaker 1: maybe you could probably spend less money, Yeah, you could,

415
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 1: You can probably spend less money and get the the

416
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: experience that you really want. Um, you know, unless the

417
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,480
Speaker 1: experience you really want is to feel your wallet get lighter,

418
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,160
Speaker 1: in which case monster the way to go. Baby. Yeah.

419
00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:04,080
Speaker 1: I mean if brand recognition is good for you, then yeah,

420
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,320
Speaker 1: it is a good quality product. Yeah. Alright, Well, now

421
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 1: that we've managed to weasel out of that one, I

422
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,199
Speaker 1: think it's try to wrap this up. Remember, if you

423
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 1: have any comments or suggestions or corrections, anything along those lines,

424
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 1: you can send it to us text stuff at how

425
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,879
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. We have blogs up. You can

426
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 1: go to how stuff works dot com and you will

427
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,440
Speaker 1: see the listing of the blogs on the right hand side.

428
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,919
Speaker 1: Please come and visit. Definitely leave comments. Chris and I

429
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 1: both interact on those blogs. So if you have a

430
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,080
Speaker 1: burning desire to say, hey, I love your podcast, and

431
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:38,280
Speaker 1: by the way, you misspelled blah blah blah, you can

432
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 1: do that and then we will hang our heads in shame.

433
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,160
Speaker 1: I never misspelled blah blah blah, and neither do I actually,

434
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:48,040
Speaker 1: but you know you can other words. Yes, So please

435
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,119
Speaker 1: come to how stuff works dot com check out some

436
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 1: of the articles there. We have plenty one cellular phones. Boy,

437
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: I've got all the way through until the end. Cellular

438
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: phones and UH and other subjects as well, and we

439
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon for more on

440
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff

441
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 1: works dot com brought to you by the reinvented two

442
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 1: thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you