WEBVTT - How 2G, 3G and 4G Cell Phone Networks Work 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.879 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot Com. Join Josh 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.280 and Chuck, the guys who bring you stuff you should know, 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.680 as they take a trip around the world to help 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.720 you get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.439 the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.240 how stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.800 Hi there, everybody, welcome to tech Stuff. My name is 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.240 Chris Polette. I'm an editor here at how stuff works 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:37.360 dot com and sitting next to me as usual as 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:44.080 senior writer Jonathan Stricklandoha. All right. I wasn't expecting that. 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.479 I know you weren't. All right, well, so so why 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.120 the aloha? No reason? I just like to change it 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.800 up every now and then. All right, and multicultural kind 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.279 of guy. I figured you were thinking of pineapples. Now, 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.400 I think I'll end this with mohallow. I think Mr 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:00.480 Calicanus will have a word to save. Why don't we 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.840 move on to our topic? All right, So today we're 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:09.039 going to talk about communications, actually long distance. Maybe maybe 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.720 somebody will be saying aloha and mahala to you. Yeah, 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:17.080 perhaps some roaming. Yeah, because we're gonna talk about cellular communications. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.880 We've had a lot of emails come in about, you know, 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.160 discussing things like the two G network, the three G network, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:29.120 the uh, the the eagerly awaited four gene network. Uh 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.200 kind of too, sort of demystify these terms, kind of 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.320 explain what they mean, and uh, why you should be 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.520 concerned about what kind of phone you have or if 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.360 you should be concerned. Um, and yeah, some of this 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.880 came from just from the last year's release of the 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.360 iPhone three G, which caused a lot of confusion among 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.560 I would say, lay people who aren't really familiar with 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.720 the whole two G three G thing in the first place. Right. Well, yeah, 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:56.800 I mean it's really not all that surprising when you 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.560 think about it, because Apple for a while there um 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.440 was releasing new generations of IBM S power PC processors, 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.400 and they'd have they had the G three and the 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.560 G four Max. Right, So so you know, it makes 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.000 sense that people would be a little surprised. Um. You know, 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.720 I actually had somebody right in and say, hey, that's 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.320 a picture of the three G iPhone, not the second 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:22.480 generation iPhone. Well, the second generation, second generation iPhone is 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:27.560 the three because it's not three G, it's G three 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.920 or wait two right, G two? So yeah, alright, so 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.680 here's where this whole confusion. See even we get confused, 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.120 and it happens to the best of us. Um yeah, 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.320 so yeah, the second generation iPhone is a three G phone. 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.760 And that's because the three G does not refer to 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.880 the phone's generation, but rather the the technology, the cellular 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.040 technology that phone communicates across right right. As a matter 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.200 of fact, people are wondering what they're rumors right now 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.040 swirling about the next generation iPhone, and they're wondering what 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:58.760 to call it because it won't be the three G 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.200 G three iPhone it that would just be silly. And 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.240 then they're calling it the G four anyway, Well, it's 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.160 not really a fourth generation iPhone. Why don't we just 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.799 call it Steve, Yeah, I think we'll be like that. 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.960 We'll just call it the jobs so um. So here, 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.160 currently in the United States, we're kind of in a 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.760 transitionary period where we're going from a two G network 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.520 and into a three G network. Um. Three G coverage 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.920 in the United States is is much better than it 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.639 was this time last year, but it's still it's still 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.720 one of those things that's growing, um city by city, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:38.440 And not every carrier has a three G network. Um. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.560 This this is technology. I mean, it's stuff that you know, 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.080 hardware and software have to be in place for these 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.880 networks to work, and not all the carriers are are 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:50.400 up to speed on that, at least not in the 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.640 United States now. Granted, in other parts of the world 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.720 they've had three G for a while now and UH. 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:57.440 And there's certain parts of the United States where they've 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.520 had it for a while, like San Francisco that you 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.320 know who to thunk it, but other places just got it, 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.520 like within the last twelve months or so now. So 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.920 the different generations, you can kind of divide them up 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:16.640 by two different things. The technology G they used to 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:22.120 transmit signals through the cellular network and the speed through 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.000 UH that those signals have. You know, so like a 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.040 two G phone is going to transmit data and UH 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.000 calls at a lower speed than a three G phone. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.479 In general, it depends on the It depends on the 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.120 technology too. It depends on the technology. It depends on 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:40.919 it actually depends on a lot of things. So we 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:42.920 have to talk in a lot of generalities here, but 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.360 let's let's break it down first. Like I was gonna 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.760 talk about two G uh, they're there are two predominant 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.840 technologies in the two G networks. UM. Most of the 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:58.000 world uses G s M, which is a UH. It's 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:02.719 based off time division multiple access technology or t d 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:07.480 M A right, right, So like Europe, Africa, Asia, a 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.520 lot of these places they're using G s M. But 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.680 in the good old US of A, we decided to 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.800 kind of adopt another technology, UM and and some of 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.560 the carriers are still using that, and that's called code 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:27.320 division multiple access technology or c d M. A. That's right. Actually, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.080 if you're wondering where G s M came came from, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.880 it's actually from A a French acronym. The a Confederation 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.560 of European Posts and Telecommunications found of the group speciel 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:43.280 Mobile in two and yes that's two. That's you know, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.040 twenty seven years ago, and they're the ones who basically 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.640 developed the standard known as G s M. And then 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.400 the acronym comes from them. Now for US RAT speaking 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.760 folks as not speaking by that, I mean those who 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.880 speak English or American. If you prefer UM G s M, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.799 we usually just go ahead and knock that out into 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:08.159 Global System for Mobile Communications. Yeah, so it's not the 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.960 the the true origin of the acronym, but hey, that's 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.640 how we Americans like to do things, gosh darn it. 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:21.800 So anyway, these two different technologies, they transmit information across 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.840 radio signals in different ways, and because of that, they're 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:30.039 not automatically compatible with one another. In fact, they're they're incompatible. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.000 So if you have a G S M phone, you 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.200 can't necessarily switch to a C d M A network. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:37.800 So if you don't have any G s M coverage 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.440 in the area you're in, you're kind of stuck. And 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:41.920 that was one of the big problems of the US 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.440 for a really long time was that a lot of 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.599 the rural areas had C d M A coverage but 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.159 not G s M coverage. So if you started driving 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.279 across the United States, you would find big patches of 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.480 areas where you had no service. Um. Since then, there 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.800 have been some systems put in where you can use 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.560 one phone over an other carriers network, but you usually 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.800 end up having to pay some pretty big roaming charges um. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.960 At least until fairly recently, a lot of the phone 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.040 carriers now I've realized that that tends to drive customers away, 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.640 and so they've they've taken that into account. But yeah, 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.120 and in in this case, it's still a matter of 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.560 G s M phones using other GSM networks and c 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.800 d M A phones using other c d M A networks. Um. 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:28.960 And if you're wondering sort of in a in a 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:34.440 broad path, which camp your provider falls into. Um, if 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.840 you're using Verizon Wireless or Sprint, next heel, Um, those 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.920 are c d M A and uh T Mobile and 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:46.240 a T and T are using g s M. Um. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.600 You can also find out if you if you are 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.960 blindfolded and or you know, somebody had rubbed off all 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.200 the markings from your phone and they're not going to 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.280 do that. That's why they subsidize your phone. They put 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.440 their brand all over it. Um. But say you had 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.160 to look at the back of a phone that didn't 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.240 have a brand and go, how would I find out 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:04.880 which one this is? If you were to take the 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.960 battery out and look underneath, if it's got a simcard, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:12.680 that's as phone. Yeah. The nice thing about g S 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.400 M phones is that if you if you have multiple 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.960 simcards and you have a different simcard for every you 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.160 know cell phone carrier, you can switch those out and 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.280 then you're not even roaming anymore. Like if you move 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.320 from one carrier's GSM network into another and you happen 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.880 to have a simcard for that carrier, you can switch 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:36.200 them out and you're you're just fine. Um. There's still 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:41.239 some problems if you are traveling overseas because they transmit 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.920 cellular information on different frequencies. So if your phone does 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.040 not is not capable of transmitting in the same frequencies 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.840 as the carrier around you uses, you're still out of luck. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:54.640 It's just not going to be able to communicate with 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.280 the network. That's uh. That's what you see when you're 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.360 looking at phone specs are looking for a new phone 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.440 and you see triband or quad band, Um, that's what 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.520 they're talking about. Or if you see the phrase world phones, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.560 that's basically what it's talking about. For GSM. There are 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.240 actually four uh frequencies that I'm aware of that are 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.959 used in different places around the world. Um. And the 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.520 more frequencies you use, I mean they're still using g 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.680 s M, but you know, you may or may not 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:25.839 find a signal. And if you're using c d M 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.400 c d M A, you're gonna have a much more 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.440 difficult time finding a signal. Yeah, especially yeah, traveling abroad, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.760 because like like we said, c d M A is 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.640 one of those technologies that really got a foothold in 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.480 the United States and pretty much everywhere else adopted G 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.760 s M. You may wonder why that is. It's because 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.720 a lot of the European countries, uh, the governments of 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:50.440 those countries mandated a specific technology, and in the US 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:55.600 that's generally considered kind of anti competitive, and so the 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.920 U S takes a lass a fair approach and they 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.200 decide not to They say, well, you know, we're not 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:06.320 gonna mandate which one is used, which sounds good except 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.400 for the ends up being kind of confusing for the consumer. 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.040 To make matters even more confusing. You may have seen 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.040 c d M A or G s M under other 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.320 code names like E V d O and EDGE. Well, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.960 those refer to the different kinds of technology, and they're 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.360 actually different forms of three g r UM edges. One 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.080 of them that's probably well known. UM. I think the 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.240 first place I saw it once when they were starting 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.840 to talk about the three G I phone and they 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:40.079 were saying, well, it will be compatible with the Edge network. Um, 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.280 they talked about I remember reading articles about how T 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.679 Mobile wasn't even on Edge yet, and that was one 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.160 of the things with the uh the G one. You 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.040 may have heard of this, This phone from HTC uses 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.120 the Google Android operating system. I'm somewhat familiar with it. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.360 well they that was one of the things, uh, you 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.480 know that they did. But E V D O and 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.880 Edge are you know next well, theoretically next generation technologies. Yes, 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.040 some might say two point five instead of three. Because 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.360 here's the other thing is that when we're talking about 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:16.200 these technologies, uh, there are organizations that are in place 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.160 to try and standardize these technologies as best they can, 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.000 but you're still talking about a range of capabilities, um, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:25.160 and so it gets kind of confusing. You know. You 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.600 start seeing things like the two G speeds sort of 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.880 bleed into the lower end of the three G speeds. Uh. 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.120 So then you might say, okay, well, this is really 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.640 a two point five G phone or two point seven 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.640 five G phone, because it's faster than a two G phone, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.640 but it's not as fast as what three G is 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.120 supposed to be. Yeah, it definitely does not make life 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:49.560 easier you know, to understand all this stuff, right, well, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.560 I mean, just to put some numbers behind it, EDGE, 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:56.080 which is UM, the enhanced Data G s M environment. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.679 We'll give you speeds of up to kilobits per second 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.280 from what I understand, But that's on the road to 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.199 what a lot of people are calling the true three G, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:10.920 which is Universal Mobile Telecommunication Servers or u MTS or 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.040 is I like to call it. And uh, and that's 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.240 two megabits per second. So um, you know that's that's 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.760 about one and a half times faster. Actually now wait, 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.800 never mind, it's like four times faster. Yeah, it's a 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.760 it's really fast compared comparatively speaking. And we should also 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.280 go ahead and point out that these these really high 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.800 end speeds, they tend to be ideals. You know, you 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.040 don't it's very rare that you're going to actually encounter 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.200 that on your own phone, especially if you're moving, If 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.720 you are in motion, then you're going to experience lower 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:50.840 speeds no matter which network you are, and you're not 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.920 going to have the ideal speed. And some of them 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.080 you'll see, like in lab tests, they achieve speeds of 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.160 blah blah blah, blah blah blah, that's because they're being 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.040 still in a lab chair and not driving across town 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.520 when you're having a conversation with a friend. And exactly 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.360 it's in under ideal circumstances, which I don't know about you, 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.080 but I am rarely in what I would consider ideal circumstances, 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.880 unless I happen to be in Hawaii, in which case 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.319 I often do think I'm in ideal circumstances. The other 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.839 the other three G technology besides the U M T 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.360 S is a c d M A two thousand. Actually 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.000 there are more than just the two, but those are 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.200 the two main ones. And again this is another generation 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.400 of the c d M, a technology which we can 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:34.600 expect to see because the United States doesn't hold you know, 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.880 it doesn't like go of stuff that easily. I mean, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:38.640 do you remember when we try to switch to metric 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.320 we're still actually we sort of gave up on it. Yeah, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.000 we totally gave up on it because Yeah, same sort 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:46.400 of thing I think is going to happen here is 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.120 that people who have who have this technology are not 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.480 going to give up on it anytime soon. But um, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.000 I did read that a T and of course I 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.199 read this at a T and T S website, So 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.440 take it. Take this however, summer story supply, but A 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.160 T and T said that there are three G speeds 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.720 range from three point six to seven point two megabits 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.280 per second in the lapse and they expect that by 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.200 the end of two thousand nine they'll have it up 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.600 to twenty megabits per second. That's pretty fast. And um, 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.760 that's not fast, no, not compared to four G. Yes, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:24.800 is that where you were going, right, I was going. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:26.960 But we we need to finish three G. I think 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:28.960 we're pretty much done. I mean we could talk about 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:33.240 I guess next would be a long term evolution, right, yes, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.360 which is where we're getting into the four G. Yeah, 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.760 that's long term evolution or LTT is the four G network. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.400 And uh speaking of your your reluctance to abandon technologies, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.960 it's kind of funny because the people who are moving 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:52.560 to LTE are actually um sort of a hodgepodge of 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.680 different people who are in different technologies now, UM A, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.240 T and T and Verizon. One of them is GSM, 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:00.840 the other is c D M A. Both of them 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.640 are saying that they'll have uh LTE networks in place. 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:10.120 Um by uh, well and I'm saying when they say networks, 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.640 I'm thinking maybe not with a capital and network, maybe 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.200 like New York and places they're they're usually in scaled rollouts. 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.680 So well, I mean, hey, let's let's play a cell 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.480 phone tycoon for a minute. You know, you have you've 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.920 built out this infrastructure that goes across the country more 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.600 or less, and then you have to go update all 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:31.600 that stuff, and you only have a limited budget. You 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.000 know you're gonna hit the big places first where lots 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.440 and lots and lots of people are UM and then 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.000 move it out from there. So the thing is, though, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.120 that LTE will actually hit um a hundred megabits downstream 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.560 and thirty upstream. UM. It actually uses a form of 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.400 t C P I P, which is uh the protocol 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.640 over which the Internet travels, and it's gonna be a 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:57.680 lot more like using an Internet network than cell phones 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:01.400 use now. So it'll be a lot more familiar, is 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.400 what I mean. The technologies are actually sort of and 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.360 to use Jonathan's favorite word converging, Yes, it'll it'll look 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.000 more like a WiFi set up than a cellular setup, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.840 although it's not using WiFi. I mean that would that 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:14.680 would be a nightmare to do that, because you would 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.080 drop calls every time you walked fifteen feet. Now that 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.920 that's true, but uh, you know it's it's rising and 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.200 a T and T moving toward LTE and not another 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:28.120 famous name, which is embracing a competing technology that we're 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.640 all familiar with. It will never be rolled out. In 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.800 my opinion, y Max and Sprint. Sprint is a big fan. 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.920 They're they're teamed up with clear Wire. Actually admire the technology, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:39.320 and I hope they roll it out. Didn't they talk 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.120 about this back in two thousand four something along those lines. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.280 So wy Max, Yeah, that's that's supposed to be one 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.760 of those last mile solution problem things where you you say, 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.480 how can we deliver uh, Internet connectivity to that last mile, uh, 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.960 the last mile to the customer wirelessly. So it's kind 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:03.000 of like it's it's using a wireless technology that um 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.400 some people call it WiFi on steroids, but that's not 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.800 really accurate. Um, it uses a completely different kind of 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.760 protocol than WiFi. Uh, there are a certain number of 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.480 open spots. Let's say, let's let's just kind of I'm 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.000 going to use an example, kind of a concrete example, 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:21.960 just imagine this to kind of get an idea of 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.320 how why max works. Think of a round building that 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.560 has forty doors, forty doorways, and as long as one 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.280 of those doorways is open, you can get into that 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.359 get in and out of that building, and get whatever 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.320 information you need in and out of that building. That's 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.320 kind of the way why max works. Once you hit 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.159 a certain number of of folks hitting that that y 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.240 max server or actually tower, I guess you could say 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:51.320 you gotta go somewhere else. So um, but theoretically you 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.240 could serve information at incredible speeds to the people that 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:59.199 you are allowing into that particular service. I'm kind of 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:00.919 with Pullette here. I don't know that we're ever going 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.080 to see this because we've been promised it forever. I 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.600 know there's certain cities that are rolling out y max networks, 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:11.639 but yeah, it's um, it was supposed to be everywhere 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.280 by now, and it just it hasn't arrived yet. UM. 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.840 I think this goes back to the it's really expensive 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.359 to roll out expensive, brand new technology to everywhere. Yeah, 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.520 putting out a new infrastructure, whether you're talking about communications 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.320 or transportation or you know, fuel or whatever. Anytime you're 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.879 talking about rolling out a new infrastructure. That's expensive because 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:34.240 first of all, you got to figure out how you're 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.639 going to incorporate it into the existing infrastructure, and then 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.000 you got to build the darned thing, and you gotta troubleshoot, 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:41.359 and you gotta make sure it works, and you gotta 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:43.880 bring it online. And I mean, it's it's a big, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.080 big deal. It's not like, you know, you flip a 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.000 switch and suddenly everyone's on four G. Now. Um, I 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.680 had read a report that said that, uh, that currently 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:58.280 the expectation for widespread adoption of LTE in the US 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:03.040 will will take at least until two thousand twelve. So 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.760 um that would it would surprise me if we got 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:07.960 there by two thousand twelve, considering how long it took 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:12.280 us to get to three G. But let's hope springs eternal. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.000 I mean, the recession kind of also plays another nasty 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.800 card into this whole thing. Companies are suddenly worried more 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.400 about staying in business than they are about innovating, So 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:23.920 we'll have to see how that goes. Um. I did 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.560 hear that if you're stationary and you're using a top 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:29.919 of the line for G network, you could expect up 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.639 to one gig a bit per second eventually, which is 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.040 that's a lot of data that's really really fast, and 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.479 that's the that's the point at which you're gonna start seeing, uh. 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.479 I think internet convergence versus you know, now you have 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.719 DSL and cable, but at those speeds, so you know, 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.000 that's beating out DSL and cable connections. Now even even 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.600 the fiber optic connections are slower than that. And I've 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.720 talked a lot about like netbooks converging with smartphones. I 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.640 think at those speeds, you could really you see that happen, 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.800 because suddenly cloud computing becomes a really distinct possibility. You know, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:06.920 you don't connect to a WiFi network, you connect to 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.320 a four G network, You're gonna have much faster speeds 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:12.960 than you would with WiFi. So at that point, cloud 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.480 computing becomes really really attractive because you as long as 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.159 you have that guaranteed high speed connection, you can take 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.399 advantage of it. Yeah, that sounds good. I have nothing 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:28.639 else about cellular phone networks, I know, Thank goodness, because 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:30.880 you know what that means, right, And I can try 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.359 and invent something real quick, hope. Sorry, it's time for 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:43.480 listener mail. Today's listener mail comes from Simon. Simon says, 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.760 Hey guys, Hi Simon, I was very intrigued by the 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.040 podcast on expensive cables, although without much proof, I've always 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.560 maintained that they are probably nothing but a big scam. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.080 At least if you have an average entertainment system and 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.560 non bionic ears. You might haven't come in the mail yet. 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:00.800 I do have a couple of ments on the study 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.680 with coat hangers. As you say, it's only five people, 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.479 so obviously not too scientific, but it seems to me 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.960 that if two out of five could tell the difference, 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.560 that might be a little bit more than just coincidence. Secondly, 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:14.400 the fact that a coat hanger may produce the same 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.160 quality of monster cables can be explained by the fact 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:20.360 that it's made of a very thick wire, possibly capable 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.800 of transmitting more information. I just did air quotes because 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.439 he put quotes around that. So in that sense, a 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.480 code hanger and a monster cable maybe better than regular cables. 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.720 I love the podcast. Please keep up the great work. Thanks, Simon. 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.159 Great really appreciate that. Um I agree with you, a 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.159 sample size of five is not scientific at all. You 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.840 can't call that scientific. It was really more of an experiment, 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.720 like in the very loosest sense of the word, not 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:53.000 in the scientific sense. Um. As for as for uh, 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:57.400 a a thick wire carrying more information, Uh, you know, yeah, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.400 heavier gauge wire is capable of carrying a higher charge. 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.160 I mean that makes sense. Um. But it also keep 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.040