Cellular Networks

If you’ve ever been riding along a long, winding country road, reached for your cell phone to make a call only to discover your phone is searching for service? This is an example of when your phone is out of reach of one of the towers that works to provide your connection to the cellular network that manages your service. Have you ever wondered what exactly your cellular network is and how it works? Or perhaps you already understand much of how calls are relayed back and forth over the wireless properties of your cell phone enabling you to have a wireless conversation with someone as close as your next door neighbor or as far as another country around the world.

Understand that while all cellular networks share some common properties about them, not all cellular networks are the same nor do they offer the same services, reliability, or coverage. Knowing how your cellular network operates begins with understanding how your cellular phone works. First, there must be a power source. For your cell phone, it’s a battery. Similarly, a cellular network derives its power from a station or tower. In the same way that a call is connected from one cell phone to the next, a cellular network relays the signal sent from your cell phone from one station or tower to the next until the distance between the two phones is bridged and a complete connection exists. When there is an interruption or disturbance in the signal on your phone, you lose the call or experience interference that may make your call have some static or distort the sound of the voice on the other end such that it is inaudible or cannot be interpreted. A cellular network that has the signal between towers or stations breached behaves in the same manner.

One of the clear advantages of using a cellular network versus a landline is that there is freedom from wires or lines. Another advantage is that a cellular network typically offers clearer and more distinct coverage than a landline does. Likewise, cellular networks embrace the technology to move at a greater speed and across the same distance as a landline but with greater speed than landline technology.

Any cell phone service provider will tell you that one of the functions of a cellular network is its ability to broadcast, which is the delivery of messages to multiple cellular phone users. This allows them to send those routine messages about savings and the timely messages to alert you that it’s time to pay your phone bill.

Cellular networks function in offering service for more than just making calls. Cellular networks are also responsible for the conveyance of text messages, picture messages, email and data transferred back and forth over web browsers. When it comes to the other functions of a cellular network, the principle is the same but there is an increased frequency to transmit data just as quickly voice is transmitted, usually over the same wires.