Wireless Speed

How many wireless devices do you use in one day? From your cellphone to laptop to wireless to Bluetooth headset, you depend on these devices to work reliably, but do you know their limitations? Depending on the device's radio, the maximum range could be a few feet to several miles. In the wireless world, we define this maximum range, not as the point at which the device stops sending or receiving, but the distance at which the radio receives data at 25% its typical amount. For all of the standards listed below, range is considered direct line of sight without physical obstructions. Mountains, trees, and buildings greatly degrade the range, which present challenges for cell phone service providers.

Service providers have many options for providing wireless signal. For instance, Verizon and Sprint use the CDMA and LTE standards. AT&T, T-Mobile, and most international service providers use the GSM standards. Regarding peak download and upload speeds, both CDMA and GSM are well matched. For a cell phone to connect to both CDMA and GSM, two radios are required, since the standards are not compatible with one another. Within a standard, the rule of thumb is that newer revisions are backwards compatible with older revision. Other faster, short range standards, like Wi-Fi are shown to give a basis for comparison.