Confused about wireless technology terms?
Read through our glossary and learn more about the most common terms in wireless cutting edge technology. Advanced users may also try the Developers FAQ

3G
3G (third generation)mobile telephony gives you high-speed access (up to 2mb/s). This may enable live pictures, camera etc. on your phone. Preceding 3G is analogue (1G). Then came GSM (2G). Currently GSM is now tested with GPRS(a "light version" of 3G.)

Related articles:
3G gadgets - a sneak preview
3G hype
WAP will coexist with UMTS


AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System)
A standard for analogue mobile systems. Used in North America, Latin America, Australia and parts of Russia and Asia.

ASP (Active Server Pages)
Serverside scripting technology to make interactive web pages. Based on VBScript.

Related article:
Wireless in the air for Swedish IT companies

Bandwidth
Measures the data-carrying capacity of a communications channel. Usually measured in bits per second(bps).

Related articles:
Broadband to he people

Base station
The central radio transmitter/receiver that maintains communications with a mobile telephone. Most countries require several hundred base stations, in order to give approximated full coverage for mobile subscribers.

Bluetooth
A radio technology built around a new chip that makes it possible to transmit signals over short distances between computers and handheld devices without the use of wires. Bluetooth.com
- Named after the Danish king Harald 1 Bluetooth who reigned from 940-985 A.D.

Related articles:
Bluetooth under the hood?
Ericsson surfs at 115k
Bluetooth - not in a blue moon
Cavity in Bluetooth security

bps
Bits per second

Related article:
Australia sees fast wireless web

B (Byte)
1 byte = 8 bits. A byte is the smallest directly addressable memory unit in modern computers.

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
A technology for digital transmission of radio signals between, for example, a mobile telephone and a base station. The system uses the same frequency to allow multiple conversations. Each conversation is cut into snippets and then remodulated in reassembled in the other end.

Related article:
Ericsson builds Vodafone 3G in the UK
NOt so high-speed from Nokia

D-AMPS (Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System)
Earlier designation of American standard for digital mobile telephony used primarily in America, Australia and parts of Russia and Asia.

DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications)
A standard for cordless telephony.

DTD
Document Type Definition. A DTD defines the names and contents of all elements that are permissible in a certain document. A DTD is used to specify XML document structure.

Dual band
Dual band mobile phones can work on networks operating different frequency bands. Often urban areas operate on 1800, while suburbs use the 900-band. This is especially useful if you travel abroad. Some phones are able to switch between GSM 900,1800,1900 (tri-band) allowing you full coverage in Europe, America and Asia.

Related articles:
Vodafone tries fast roaming
Trouble with adjusting frequency
Mp3 joins WAP in Siemensī SL45

GHz
Gigaherz - A frequency measurement. One hertz equals one cycle per second. GHz = One Billion hertz.

GPS
Global Position System. Based on US defence satellite system, enables tracking of individuals. This technology may prove helpful when navigating a car in the city, or help emergency rescue-team to locate the person in need of help.

Related article:
Find you way by Wapping
Do you have something to hide?

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
A packet-linked technology that may enable high-speed (up to 115 kilobit per second) access to wireless Internet in a GSM network.
GPRS is IP-based, and may allow users to be online 24 hours.

Related articles:
GPRS success in China
Negroponte: UMTS will fail
3G licence bonus
Packets will speed up WAP
Big brands in GPRS race

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
The world’s most widely used mobile system. Used on the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequencies in Europe, Asia and Australia, and the MHz 1900 frequency in America.

Related articles:
Flashing antennas slammed
Multimedia through GSM

HDML
Handheld Markup Language. Invented by phone.com, predecessor to WML.

HSCSD
(High Speed Circuit Switched Data). A circuit-linked technology for higher transmission speed by combining several GSM channels at the same time. This may allow speeds up to 58 bps, far faster than original GSM (9.6bps). For upload HSCSD is limited to half the speed. This technology is the predecessor of GPRS, which may deliver up to 115kbs.

Related articles:
Nokia 6210 approved for highspeed
Nokia trials mobile Internet in China

Hz
Hertz - radio frequency measurement (one hertz = one cycle per second).

Kbps (Kilobits per second)
A speed measurement for the transmitting of data (see BPS).

MB (Megabyte)
1 MB = 1024 kilobytes (KB)

Related article:
GSMBox to expand

PAN
Personal Area Networks. A personal network between your devices, for example between your computer and your mobile phone. Bluetooth is one related standard, enabling this.

Related article:
Bluetooth roll-out picking up speed
Ericsson reveals Bluetooh mobile

PDA
Personal Digital Assistent. Usually a hand-held device, such as the Palm Pilot or Psion.

Related articles:
Mobile phones of the future at trade fair
Psion goes WAP
New PDA from Sony up against tough competition

PDC (Personal Digital Cellular)
A Japanese standard for digital mobile telephony (800 MHz and 1500 MHz bands).

Related article:
Ericsson and Nokia facing Japanese competition
Japanese consumer offensive

PHS (Personal Handyphone System)
Digital mobile telephone system according to Japanese standard (1900Mhz).

Related article:
Anoto office in Japan

Roaming
Means that your mobile phone automatically sets up communication procedures with different radio base stations when you are on the move. International roaming means that you can use networks other than your own when travelling abroad. Some phones allow for example switching between 900/1800 in Europe to 1900 in US.

Related article:
Vodafone tries fast roaming
New triple-band from Ericsson!
Cheaper clling with TwinSim

Router
A data switch that handles connections between different networks. A router identifies the addresses on data passing through the switch, determines which route the transmission should take and collects data in "packets" which are sent to their destinations.

Related article:
Mobile phones at the future trade fair

SET
SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) is a system for ensuring the security of financial transactions over the Internet. SET, may authenticate both user and merchant in order to approve the transaction.

Related articles:
Safer mobile buying on the horizon
Sony secures m-commerce
Bank services the new trend on WAP

SGML
Standardised Generalised Markup Language. The mother of all markup languages. XML is "SGML light". HTML is a loose application of SGML.

SMS (Short Message Service)
A service for sending messages of up to 160 characters to mobile phones that use Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication. GSM and SMS services are primarily available in Europe.

Related articles:
SMS sets new record
SMS wipes out your Nokia
Fun Love = SMS
Cheaper wapping may bring in the teens

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
Protocol for managing the security of message transmissions in a network. The idea is that the programming for keeping your messages confidential ought to be contained in a program layer between an application (such as your Web browser) and the Internet’s TCP/IP layers. The current rate of SSL cryptation is 128.

Related article:
Psion launches portal

UA
User Agent. Software that interprets WML, WMLScript, WTAI and other forms of code. Explorer, Netscape and Opera, are examples of UAīs)

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)
The name for the third generation mobile telephone standard in Europe. Also described as 3G.

Related articles:
Who will be first in the UMTS market?
Broadband touring with Alcatel
UMTS - Universal Mess Telephony System

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)
Describes the process of transmitting voice via data IP packages.

Related article:
Talk of the town
Related site:
http://www.von.com/

W3C
World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3c.org

WAE
Wireless Application Environment. WAE specifies an environment that allows operators and service providers to build applications and services that can reach a wide variety of different platforms. WAE is part of the Wireless Application Protocol.

WAP
The Wireless Application Protocol is a family of protocols allowing mobile devices to access wireless services.

WAP Forum
WAP Forum, an organization of several big internet and telecom companies, develops the WAP protocol. http://www.wapforum.org

WAP Gateway
A WAP gateway is a two-way software. Its main function is to offload the WAP mobile device from a lot of computational layers.

WAP Server
A WAP server is a web server. The computer programmers use WML instead of HTML.

WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)
A technology for wideband digital radio communications of Internet, multimedia, video and others - described as 3G.

Related article: Nokias tries mobile Internet in China

WDP
Wireless Datagram Protocol

WML Card
A WML card must exist inside a WML deck containing one or more cards.

WML Deck
A collection of WML cards.

WMLScript
Scripting language for WAP devices. Based on JavaScript, but less powerful.

WSP
Wireless Session Protocol. Provides the upper-level application layer of WAP with a consistent interface for two session services, a connection-mode service that operates above a transaction layer protocol, and a connectionless service that operates above a secure or non-secure datagram transport service.

WTLS
Wireless Transport Layer Security. The "equivalent" to SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) widely used in the HTML world - although not identical in functionality.

WTP
Wireless Transaction Protocol

WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get.

XML
Extensible Markup Language. W3Cīs standard for Internet Markup Languages. WML is one of these languages.