WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY. According to Encyclopedia.com: “Wireless technology provides the ability to communicate between two or more entities over distances without the use of wires or cables of any sort. This includes communications using radio frequency (RF) as well as infrared (IR) waves.”

Livewire.com says: “Wireless’ is a broad term that encompasses all sorts of technologies and devices that transmit data over the air rather than over wires, including cellular communications, networking between computers with wireless adapters and wireless computer accessories.”

The term may also refer to devices that draw power without using cables. A smartphone that we can recharge without wires has wireless technology in it. However, in most cases, the term refers to communicating without wires or cables.

Wireless technologies in one form or another have been around for a long time. It all started with German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) when he discovered electromagnetic waves. The first wireless conversation ever occurred in 1880 when Charles Sumner Tainter and Alexander Graham Bell invented the photophone, a telephone that conducted audio conversation over modulated light beams. They patented the photophone that year.

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, pioneered work on long-distance radio transmission. In 1909, Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun shared the Nobel Prize in physics for the development of wireless telegraphy.

During the 20th century, many types of wireless technologies emerged. The radio, which Marconi invented, and television, for example, receive broadcast communications without using wires. Satellites are also examples of wireless technology. Most people today think of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and modems (routers) if you ask them about wireless technology.

There are currently two main types of wireless technology. Wi-fi is a technology that allows tablets, video game consoles, printers, and smartphones to communicate with the Internet. Medical devices, laptops, and digital audio players also use Wi-Fi. The term ‘Wi-Fi’ emerged in the 1990s from the words ‘Wireless’ plus ‘Fi,’ which was an arbitrary second element, after ‘Hi-Fi.’ People often mistakenly interpret the term as a short form of ‘Wireless Fidelity.’ Cellular networks (mobile phone networks) allow electronic devices to communicate over long distances. One person in, for example, Alaska, can talk to another person in Australia using their smartphones. Cellular networks allow them to do that. (1)

In 2001, You Squared, whose CEO was Wayne BRIGGS became the first local business to provide wireless Internet service reaching from Epworth to Maquoketa in Iowa, Cuba City to Kieler in Wisconsin and Eagle Ridge to East Dubuque in Illinois, began setting up a digital network. Prior to that, wireless Internet service was provided commercially only around Dyersville and in areas close to other local Internet providers. Company officials announced the company would be able to service 90% of the residences and businesses in the tri-state region.

This choice was not a substitute for fiber-optic networks which were much more expensive but offered top-of-the-line quality. Wireless could cost less because it did not depend on the use of copper wires or cables. Prices began at an estimated $40 per month but depended upon options including the speed of connections. Digital signals traveled by line of site requiring signals to be transmitted from multiple towers.

At the time of the announcement T-1 connection transmitted information at speeds of 250 kilobytes per second or more. Two other choices for high-speed Internet access included DSL which provided 200 kilobytes or more and ISDN that provided 128 kilobytes per second. Dial-up access transmitted information at speeds up to 56 kilobytes. The fastest connections, T-1 and wireless Internet, had the potential in 2001 of transmitting information at 1.5 megabytes per second. (2)

Envision2010, a community-planning procedure and document, listed in 2006 as one of its "10 Great Ideas for a Greater Dubuque": (3)

                Community-wide Wireless
                Make Dubuque a "wireless city by creating community-wide wireless
                accessibility to the Internet, available to residents, businesses,
                law enforcement, governments and visitors.

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Source:

1. "What is Wireless Technology? Definition and Examples," Market Business News. Online: https://marketbusinessnews.com/financial-glossary/wireless-technology/

2. Coyle, Erin, "The 'Surf' Soon Will Be Up in Tri-State Area, Telegraph Herald, October 15, 2001, p. 3

3. "10 Great Ideas for Greater Dubuque," Envision: The Community Projects by 2010, Online: http://p8080-10.30.40.140.ezproxy.dubuque.lib.ia.us/ResCarta-Web/jsp/RcWebImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=76d75574-3467-4ecf-9df4-c2b7da149f1e/ResCarta/00000050/00005040