Pretty much every smartphone owner uses mobile data today, but only a few know how to work. You can find out more about it here.
Today’s mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are only really useful when they are connected to the Internet. Fortunately, thanks to mobile data connections, it is not always a WLAN. But how do mobile data actually work? We’ll tell you what is behind this technology and why you can surf the Internet regardless of location.
The term “mobile data” is a common name for an internet connection via the mobile network. This enables you to surf the Internet on the go and completely without access to a WLAN, to stream multimedia content or apps that are dependent on an internet connection.
In order for mobile data to work as expected, your smartphone or tablet requires a connection to a mobile network. The data transmission takes place via electromagnetic radio waves, which are exchanged between your mobile device and the base station of the nearest radio cell of your mobile operator.
A base station is the core element of a radio cell. It has special mobile phone technology and antennas and establishes the connection to the wired network of the mobile phone provider.
In order to achieve a higher radio range, the technology of the base station is often installed on towers, so -called radio masts or other high structures. This has a positive effect on the size of the radio cell. In densely populated areas, this is usually a few hundred meters, but a radio cell can also be several kilometers in rural regions.
To use a mobile data connection with a smartphone or tablet, you first need a data tariff. Mobile phone providers mostly offer flat rates for this, so that you can basically access the Internet as long as you like. In most tariffs, the provider only reduces the speed of the internet connection after the consumption of a data volume specified.
If you have a data tariff, you only need Noch sufficient reception to the mobile network so that mobile data work for you as intended. Your mobile device will dial at the nearest base station of your provider. If the reception is weak, the device changes automatically and without interruption to another base station, provided that it provides a stronger signal.
In order to transfer data via the mobile data connection to the Internet, your smartphone or tablet first pack it into small data packages and transmits it via radio waves to the connected base station. The latter converts the radio signals into electrical or optical signals and transmits them via the cable -bound infrastructure of the provider.
When receiving, mobile data work similarly to sending, only in reverse order. For example, if you download a file or stream a video, the individual data packages first arrive as electrical or optical signals at the base station. Latter Convert the data into radio signals And it transmits to her smartphone, which again makes electrical signals out of it and further processes it.