(CNN) -- In the 19th century, the invention of the telegraph and the telephone forever changed how messages moved around the world. In the 20th century, radio, television, computers and the Internet further revolutionized the near-instantaneous processing and transmission of data. .
In this day and age where the ability to gather and transmit data is of utmost importance, we see technologies popping up left and right to assist us in this task. One of the technologies that gained much popularity is the wireless technology. When we talk about wireless technology, we are not just discussing cellular phones, or remote controlled televisions. Wireless technology, in today's world, can be found in a host of other devices such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), and Computers (or more prominently in laptops).
What is wireless technology? In the computer world, there are three standards that is currently being used; 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a standards. Both 802.11b and 802.11g standards transmit at the 2.4 GHz range, with speeds up to 11Mbps and 54Mbps, while 802.11a standard transmits at 5 GHz. Of these three standards, 802.11b is most widely used and it is also the oldest standard. There are also other wireless technologies available such as Bluetooth, which transmits at 2.4 GHz with speed up to 720kps. Bluetooth technology is primarily used in printers, cameras, and PDAs. There are also cellular technologies such as GSM, 3GSM, GPRS, CDMA, CDMA2000, CDPD, and TDMA. These are all technologies that use wireless interfaces to communicate. .
Why wireless? Wireless technologies provide instantaneous connectivity to the users. For example, users with wireless enabled computers/laptops will be able to connect to the internet and gather needed information by connecting to the wireless hotspots available to them. With the increasing popularity of wireless technology, wireless hotspots availability also increased dramatically.
