Mobile network usage has increased tremendously over the years, and mobile devices and the technology designed to carry the load has likewise evolved accordingly.
Most technology old-timers would have remembered the first cellphone we ever used, but many of us don’t quite remember how they operated on the first-generation mobile networks of the day. The old-school mobile technology of that era used analog-based protocols that could only provide basic voice services. Today that smartphone device you have in your hand pretty much works like a microcomputer, when connected to a fourth generation (4G) mobile network deploying IP-based protocols designed primarily for pushing data.
Here’s an infographic from CommScope that shows how mobile network connectivity has evolved, as well as provide numbers that forecast data consumption in the coming future:
