Mobile Data communications

 Mobile Data communications

Mobile Phone internet

   Mobile phones are now heavily used for data communications. such as SMS messages, browsing mobile web sites, and even streaming audio and video files. The main limiting factors are the size of the screen, lack of a keyboard, processing power and connection speed. Most cellphones, which supports data communications, can be used as wireless modems (via cable or bluetooth), to connect computer to internet. Such access method is slow and expensive, but it can be available in very remote areas.

  With newer smartphones, screen resolution and processing power has become bigger and better. Some new phone CPUs run at over 1 GHz. Many complex programs are now available for the various smartphones, such as Symbian and Windows Mobile.

   Connection speed is based on network support. Originally data transfers over GSM networks were possible only over CSD (circuit switched data), it has bandwidth of 9600 bit/s and usually is billed by connection time (from network point of view, it does not differ much from voice call). Later, there were introduced improved version of CSD - HSCSD (high speed CSD), it could use multiple time slots for downlink, improving speed. Maximum speed for HSCSD is ~42 kbit/s, it also is billed by time. Later was introduced GPRS (general packet radio service), which operates on completely different principle. It also can use multiple time slots for transfer, but it does not tie up radio resources, when not transferring data (as opposed to CSD and like). GPRS usually is prioritized under voice and CSD, so latencies are large and variable. Later, GPRS was upgraded to EDGE, which differs mainly by radio modulation, squeezing more data capacity in same radio bandwidth. GPRS and EDGE usually are billed by data traffic volume. Some phones also feature full Qwerty keyboards, such as the LG enV.

     As of April 2006, several models, such as the Nokia 6680, support 3G communications. Such phones have access to the Web via a free download of the Opera web browser. Verizon Wireless models come with Internet Explorer pre-loaded onto the phone

    The mobile Web refers to the use of browser-based Internet services from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network.

    Traditionally, access to the World Wide Web has been via fixed-line services on laptops and desktop computers. However, the Web is becoming more accessible by portable and wireless devices. An early 2010 ITU (International Telecommunication Union) report said that with the current growth rates, web access by people on the go — via laptops and smart mobile devices – is likely to exceed web access from desktop computers within the next five years. In January 2014 the time of mobile access to the internet exceeded desktop use in the USA. The shift to mobile Web access has been accelerating with the rise since 2007 of larger multitouch smartphones, and of multitouch tablet computers since 2010. Both platforms provide better Internet access, screens, and mobile browsers- or application-based user Web experiences than previous generations of mobile devices have done. Web designers may work separately on such pages, or pages may be automatically converted as in 

The distinction between mobile Web applications and native applications is anticipated to become increasingly blurred, as mobile browsers gain direct access to the hardware of mobile devices (including accelerometers and GPS chips), and the speed and abilities of browser-based applications improve. Persistent storage and access to sophisticated user interface graphics functions may further reduce the need for the development of platform-specific native applications.

    The Mobile Web has also been called Web 3.0, drawing parallels to the changes users were experiencing as Web 2.0 websites proliferated.

   Mobile Web access today still suffers from interoperability and usability problems. Interoperability issues stem from the platform fragmentation of mobile devices, mobile operating systems, and browsers. Usability problems are centered on the small physical size of the mobile phone form factors (limits on display resolution and user input/operating). Despite these shortcomings, many mobile developers choose to create apps using mobile Web. A June 2011 research on mobile development found mobile Web the third most used platform, trailing Android and iOS.

     In an article in Communications of the ACM in April 2013, Web technologist Nicholas C. Zakas, noted that mobile phones in use in 2013 were more powerful than Apollo 11's 70 lb (32 kg) Apollo Guidance Computer used in the July 1969 lunar landing However, in spite of their power, in 2013, mobile devices still suffer from Web performance with slow connections similar to the 1996 stage of Web development. Mobile devices with slower download request/response times, the latency of over-the-air data transmission, with "high-latency connections, slower CPUs, and less memory" force developers to rethink Web applications created for desktops with "wired connections, fast CPUs, and almost endless memory."