Mobile Internet Glossary

In 2012 Congress authorized the establishment of the First Responder Network Authority with a goal to "provide emergency responders with the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety".

AT&T won that contract, and began deploying this network over their LTE Band 14 in 2018.

To access the full priority access capabilities of FirstNet requires a special FirstNet cellular plan and SIM card available to first responders (police, fire, medical) - but AT&T customers with LTE Band 14 compatible gear will benefit from FirstNet spectrum when there's not an active disaster response.

Frequency is defined as the number of times a repeating event happens per second, and is measured in Hertz (or Hz).

When it comes to radio waves, lower frequencies travel farther and can more easily pass through walls and obstructions. Higher frequencies are more easily blocked and are better suited for shorter range use.

To keep radios from broadcasting on top of each other, most of the radio spectrum is managed by the government and only licensed broadcasters can transmit on a range of frequencies that they “own.”

The gain is the increase in signal provided by an amplifier or an antenna. Gain is logarithmic and reported in dB – a 3dB gain is a doubling in signal power. A 10dB gain is a 10x increase in signal power.

Gbps stands for gigabit per second and is also often written as Gb/s. A gigagbit is made up of 1,000 megabits.

This is a unit of measure most common for expressing local networking capability, but cellular technology is evolving to express speeds in this range as well.

When an internet provider retires a plan it is no longer available to new customers.

However those who already had the plan are generally grandfathered in - meaning they get to keep their plan, features and pricing for as long as they keep paying the bill.  The carrier does legally have the option to discontinue the plan or change terms at any time. And sometimes carriers are very clear that promotional plans are for a limited time only, and will not be grandfathered in after the time period is up.

Sometimes grandfathered in plans can be transferred to other customers, but this is carrier and plan dependent.

Some antennas designed for automobile use need a ground plane to function properly.

The metal roof of a car or truck usually provides this functional. Using these styles of antennas on an RV or boat might require providing a 8" x 8" piece of metal to properly reflect signals into the antenna.

GSM stands for “Global System for Mobile Communications” and is an international standard for 2G cellular networks. In the USA, AT&T and T-Mobile originally built their networks on the GSM standard.

4G LTE and 5G have pretty much replaced this older technology.

gUDP is shorthand for 'Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan', and more specifically refers to Verizon's legacy unlimited data plans.

These plans were taken off the market in 2011, but continue to be grandfathered in for existing customers. They are not subject to throttling or network management, and are truly unlimited.

We used to just call the plan Verizon UDP (unlimited data plans), but had to add the 'g' when Verizon brought back multiple versions of unlimited plans (with limits) starting in 2017.

A hotspot is the common name for a Wi-Fi network's access point.

A public hotspot is usually hosted by a campground, marina, cafe or library.

A private hotspot might be one you host yourself, or one you've been given special access to such as a driveway host or business you are visiting.

A mobile hotspot or personal hotspot is the term often used to describe a private hotspot made by a smartphone or mobile hotspot device to share a cellular connection.

The operating system inside Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Every site on the internet has an IP address. Behind the scenes, this numerical address is used to communicate instead of friendly names like rvmobileinternet.com. It's like a phone number for every device and destination on the internet.

The "Internet Protocol" (IP) address is like a phone number for every device on the internet.

The addressing system in IPv4 was made up of four 8-bit (0-255) numbers, so an IPv4 address looks like something like 192.168.1.1.

IPv4 is limited because it can only provide ~4.3 billion unique addresses and the growth of the internet means the number of available addresses is running out.

The "Internet Protocol" (IP) address is like a phone number for every device on the internet.

The addressing system in IPv4 was made up of four 8-bit (0-255) numbers, so an IPv4 address looks like something like 192.168.1.1.

In the mid-90's work began on IPv6, which expands the address format from a 32-bit number to a 128-bit number - allowing nearly as many potential addresses as there are atoms on the earth.

Most consumer equipment is still using iPv4, but most behind the scenes networking is IPv6. Most humans don't need to worry about it.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) - the company who is providing your internet connection. It might be a cable company, a cellular carrier, satellite provider, WISP or DSL.

Jetpack is the trademarked branded name owned by Verizon to refer to their mobile hotspot devices - regardless of the manufacturer of the device. It is often incorrectly used to refer to any mobile hotspot device on any carrier, much like Kleenex is often used to refer to any brand of facial tissue.

Inseego owns the trademark MiFi for their hotspot devices - so their products for Verizon can be referred by Jetpack, MiFi, or just mobile hotspot device.

Reported by some speed testing apps, jitter is an indication of how much the connection latency varies moment-to-moment.

Stands for kilobit per second and is also often written as kb/s. It is a measure of Internet speeds, and slower connections of less than 1 Mbps tend to be expressed in Kbps instead.  500 Kbps is half the speed of 1 Mbps.

LAN stands for Local Area Network, as opposed to WAN, which stands for Wide Area Network (ie. the internet).

Whether wired or wireless, the network inside your home, RV, office or boat is considered a LAN. It is comprised of your router and devices you have connected to it which might include laptops, tablets, streaming devices, cameras, back-up drives and more.

This is the time in milliseconds it takes for a request from your computer to reach a server and to return, like the ping of a ship’s sonar. The higher the number, the slower the speed.

Latencies under 100ms are good, under 50ms are great, and ping times over 500ms (half a second!) begin to feel painful.

Unusually high latencies are often a sign of an unreliable connection.

This measurement is particularly important for online gaming and two-way video -  but any interactive task can begin to suffer from higher latencies. For general surfing, it will be noticeable as that blank pause when you first request a new website.

On a satellite TV or internet system, the Low Noise Block (LNB) is the extremely sensitive reception antenna mounted on a boom at the focal point of the dish.

A 'locked' mobile device is one that has been restricted by software so that it can only be used with a single network or carrier.

'Unlocking' a phone means that it can be used with another SIM card/carrier - and in another country. The unlocked handset may still display the original network's branding and may not support the features of the new carrier. Most phones can be unbranded by uploading a different version of the phone's internal software or 'firmware'.

The dominant 4G technology is known as LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution.

The LTE platform was designed to evolve to support faster and more advanced networks. The design goal for LTE-A is to enable cellular networks to support speeds up to 100Mbps for mobile users, and up to 1Gbps for stationary users.

LTE-LAA (aka LTE Band 46) is a technology that lets cellular carriers tap into unused and unlicensed 5GHz Wi-Fi spectrum to offer crazy fast speeds over short ranges.

The "LAA" stands for "Licensed Assisted Access" - which means that your primary connection is still over traditional cellular bands, and the Wi-Fi frequencies are only there for a speed boost. Theoretically, the technology is designed to co-exist with nearby Wi-Fi signals to avoid causing any interference.

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have all begun to use LTE-LAA in some of their most congested urban areas, and the some flagship LTE devices automatically support tapping into these VIP express lanes.

Note:  It seems that some devices are not able to use 5GHz for both Wi-Fi and cellular simultaneously. For example - the Netgear Nighthawk can only host a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network with LAA enabled. Enabling 5GHz Wi-Fi disables LAA compatibility.

Mbps stands for megabits per second and is also often written as Mb/s (not to be confused with MB/s). It's the common unit of measure for expressing speed of an internet connection.

A megabit is made up of 1,000,000 bits, or 125,000 bytes (text characters).

A mini cell tower that utilizes an existing broadband Internet service to create local cellular service. These are generally only available in fixed locations (likes homes or offices) and are offered directly by cellular carriers to their customers in fringe signal areas.

As this solution requires both coordination with the carrier and an existing broadband uplink, they are usually only suitable for fixed locations and we don't consider them a mobile internet solution.

“MiFi” is trademarked brand name by Inseego (formerly Novatel) for their line of mobile hotspot devices. The term is often used generically to refer to any mobile hotspot device - much like Kleenex is often used to describe any facial tissue.

MIMO stands for Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output – for wireless networks, this means using multiple antennas working together to increase data speeds and signal reception.

MIMO technology is central to the latest Wi-Fi and LTE cellular standards - and most devices can take advantage of at least two antennas for doubling speeds.

Extremely high frequency mmWave (millimeter wave) 5G cellular bands are broadcast at 24GHz or higher, and are capable of insanely fast speeds. But mmWave signals have extremely limited range, and can be easily blocked by walls and even windows.

AT&T has chosen to dub its mmWave service as 5G+, and Verizon calls it "5G Ultra Wideband".

Mobile hotspot refers to the ability to use cellular data as your internet connection.

The term is generally used in two ways:

• Mobile hotspot device is a small data only device, usually battery powered, which combines a router with a cellular modem allowing the user to share a cellular connection with other nearby devices via a Wi-Fi connection. Also known by their branded names of MiFi, Jetpack or Aircard.
• Personal Mobile Hotspot - is a feature on a smartphone that allows you to share its data connection with other devices.  Sometimes this term is also called 'tethering' - which usually refers to using this same feature but over a physical USB cable instead of wirelessly.

Modem is short for “modulate/demodulate”. It's a device that can send and receive the signal from your internet service provider and translates it for use on your local area network to access the internet.

It is commonly used to reference a cable modem, DSL modem, or cellular modem. In mobile internet, we most often are referencing cellular modems that are built into smartphones, mobile hotspot devices, and routers.

A company that offers cellular service, but does not own its own cellular network. MVNOs lease capacity from the major carriers and resell it under their own branding.

Network Attached Storage - This is data storage that is accessible through the network that centralizes the data making it accessible to any device that is connected to the network.

Some routers have built in hard drives or usb connections to connect external hard drives for simple data sharing.

Other NAS devices are computers or servers that can manage large data backups through RAID and Cloud servers.

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a method to translate IP addresses between networks. It also allows a single, public IP address to be used by multiple private IP addresses.  This aspect of NAT is essential for creating private networks in home and mobile routers.  It's also becoming a common tool for internet service providers to manage dwindling numbers of IPv4 network addresses until the new IP addressing system, IPv6, is fully implemented.

NAT can also refer to network restrictions in multiplayer video games that prohibit certain types of multiplayer gaming connections.

A system of devices that are joined together, either by wires or wireless, so that they can communicate by exchanging information. A network can also share an internet connection to individual devices.

"When a carrier reserves the right to de-prioritize the traffic of high bandwidth users. They generally have a threshold before this kicks in, although some plans are always subject to it.

After that threshold is reached, if you're on a cellular tower that is experiencing congestion, your usage might be slowed down in relation to other customers. Once the tower is no longer congested, full speeds should resume.

When on underused towers, you may never experience it. But if you're frequently in congested areas, it can be a problem - especially during peak hours."

When a carrier reserves the right to de-prioritize the traffic of high bandwidth users. They generally have a threshold before this kicks in, although some plans are always subject to it.

After that threshold is reached, if you're on a cellular tower that is experiencing congestion, your usage might be slowed down in relation to other customers. Once the tower is no longer congested, full speeds should resume.

When on underused towers, you may never experience it. But if you're frequently in congested areas, it can be a problem - especially during peak hours.

Operator is another label often used to describe cellular companies since they are operating a network on behalf of their customers.

The network operator owns or controls the licensed radio spectrum and the network infrastructure necessary to provide service over that spectrum.

Contrast this to an MVNO or reseller, which does not own the network but which leases service from a network operator.

OS stands for operating system. An operating system is the software that supports a computer's (or phone or tablet or etc.) basic functions, such as scheduling tasks, executing applications, and controlling peripherals.

If the outside antenna for a cellular booster picks up the signal from the inside antenna instead of the cellular tower, oscillation happens. If the booster is properly designed, it will power down to prevent this - thus limiting the effectiveness of a booster.

This is the same phenomena as walking too close to a speaker with a microphone – leading to a howling screech. It's a feedback loop.

The best way to avoid oscillation is to put as much distance as possible between the inside and outside booster antennas, and to keep the antennas pointed away from each other.