Mobile Broadband vs Wireless Internet

What’s the difference between Mobile Broadband and Wireless Internet?

Things can get confusing with all these internet terms floating around. One good example is the difference between wireless internet and mobile broadband. People tend to get these confused if they don’t know the difference between the two technologies.

What is the difference between mobile broadband and wireless internet?

The main difference is mobility. Wireless internet is still connected to your home. You can’t go very far away from your house without loosing your internet signal. This is because traditional broadband works either via the cable TV company or the hard-wired telephone company. In both cases, the connection is still wired into your home.

Mobile broadband, on the other hand, uses a cell phone signal. As you may know, cell phone towers are everywhere. That means you are not restricted to getting an internet connection in your home anymore. Mobile broadband allows you to take your internet with you anywhere you go.

How can wireless internet be called “wireless” if it still requires a cable to connect to it?

That’s a very good question. The reason it’s called wireless is because it gets rid of the wires between computers and modems. The hardware powering wireless internet is called a modem. It requires the cable TV signal to be plugged into it. And it acts as the transmitter to nearby computers. Technically, you could call mobile broadband the ultimate form of wireless internet. However, mobile broadband came along after wireless internet. Mobile broadband didn’t receive the title of “wireless” because the name was already taken.