Did you know that Salt uses the Internet from UPC?
Today it goes without saying to use the Internet on your mobile phone. Many don’t worry about the technology behind it. We’ve traced the path back: from the smartphone to the cell phone antenna to the cell phone mast and on to the Internet cables connected to the World Wide Web.
The history of the cable network
The first cable network operators began laying underground cables for radio reception in Switzerland in the 1930s. In the 1950s, television programmes from the underground lines were also broadcast on domestic television sets. The predecessor companies of UPC Switzerland were among the pioneers in the field of these radio and television cable networks. Today, UPC is the largest cable network operator in Switzerland and also supplies telephone and Internet customers via cable.
Mobile operators also use these earth lines. Salt, for example, has connected its transmitters to UPC’s underground Internet cable network. This network consists of 95 % fibre-optic cables and 5 % copper cables.
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In fibre-optic technology, data transmission works through light. In contrast to other technologies, there is hardly any loss of speed, even over long distances. If data is transmitted by electrons in copper cables, photons are used as information carriers in fiber optic cables. For the old copper technology, electrical impulses have to be transmitted, whereas in the case of glass fibre light flashes are sent through the lines.
Ever heard of dark fiber?
To give mobile phone customers access to the Internet, data from the fiber optic/copper cable network must be sent to the user’s smartphone via a mobile phone mast and received from there. The transmission from the transmitter to the mobile phone and back works via waves within certain frequency ranges. Currently, most data traffic is handled in the 3G and 4G network. The G stands for Generation. A network standard of the 5th generation (5G) is already being planned. This is intended to increase the speed tenfold compared to 4G (LTE) and consequently achieve transmission rates of up to 10 Gbps.
As the volume of data in the 5G network increases, the cables connected to the transmission masts will also have to provide higher performance. One solution could be so-called dark fiber lines, i.e. fiber optic cables that are only used by the mobile network operator and can therefore be fully utilized by him. If he does not use his exclusive lines, no light flashes are communicated and it remains dark. This is where the name Dark Fiber comes from, whereby fiber in German means fiber.
By the way: so-called control stations in the mobile radio network ensure that a smartphone that is moved from one transmitter mast radio range to the next does not suffer a disconnection. The control of the transmitters by the control stations can be carried out both via cable lines and via radio; the latter is cheaper, but more susceptible to interference.
The smartphone antenna
For a mobile phone to be able to download data from the Internet and send it back again, it must therefore communicate with the mobile network. This is done via an antenna, which was still visible on the outside of the first mobile phones – usually in the form of a pen or telescopic stick at the top of the device. Today, no antenna protrudes from the mobile phone. The antennas have become invisible. With some devices they run directly along the inside of the frame, with other mobile phones they are installed further inside.
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