There are many types of high speed wireless internet and these differ primarily on the devices used for establishing the connectivity.

Types of High Speed Wireless Internet

One of the traditional means is to make use of the Wi-Fi zones. These are commonly called “hot spots”. These are wireless fidelity spots which provide internet connection from a common access point. The hot spots are usually supported by internet cafes and other places of interest like the coffee shops where people can access internet with their laptops or notebooks. Some hot spots charge while others provide free services and are called free spots. These zones make use of the 802.11 standard. More advanced versions of the standard provide for high speeds and 802.11n where n stands for next generation offers speeds as high as 100Mbps.

Another technology providing high speed wireless internet is the cellular internet or mobile internet. These are base stations operating at a particular frequency and a interconnection of various base stations via a public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides the required wireless connectivity. This form of high speed network commonly uses the GPRS and 3G technologies which support high speed transfer of almost any type of frame.

The above two standards provide security by means of protocols and encryption standards. The most secure form however is the satellite based internet. This offers more secured means of high speed wireless internet. These have an antenna and a transmitter in addition to regular modems.

Other advanced technologies using the advantages of all the above three technologies have come up namely the virtual private network (VPN) and Bluetooth. Bluetooth is the emerging trend offering incredible speed of about 2 Mbps. But the data transfer is restricted to smaller distances and only peer to peer services are possible with this.

The service providers are Boston Communications Group, Dobson Communications Group for cellular internet, T-Mobile, Boingo for Wi-Max and Satmex, PanAmSat, Intelsat for satellite services. The current speed of high speed wireless internet is about 2 MBPS and with the upcoming 4G technology, speeds as high as 20Mbps are possible. Thus high speed wireless internet is a reality.

If this whole concept of prepaid wireless internet seems interesting and exciting to you but a little weird and new, then you certainly need to look at a no. of factors before you actually go for it. But before trying to understand the working and appreciate the services one must need to know the basic thing that with internet services it is always a compromise between speed and cost. And with wireless internet services comes another constraint of coverage which is highly dependent on the signal strength coverage of the service provider. Thus for one to fix up a prepaid wireless internet, a basic knowledge of the availability of signal in the work area is highly essential.

An overall survey of the service providers for prepaid wireless internet can give you a good deal of information on the factors playing a significant role in deciding to buy one. The most popular service providers are the Vodafone, 3, virgin, Optus, etc. If you are looking for a speedy connection and a one which enables you to stay connected in any remote corner of the earth, then certainly Telstra’s Next G network is the best choice. However one needs to pay heavily. Nowadays, mobile companies are capitalizing on integrating 3G technology in every other mobile they manufacture to make mobile and internet compatible. Exploiting the benefits of the 3G technology can well provide the best prepaid wireless internet services but here again connectivity comes as a setback. A strong signal is needed for an internet access through mobiles.

Other important factors one needs to give a search for are the download limits and the validity. A 2GB connection valid for ten days will eat up an ordinary user. Thus one has to be wise while choosing the plans and the free download and maximum download limits and select the right plan.

Another major factor is the supporting device. While there are attractive compact devices compromising the size, the need for buying a device for permanency has to be analyzed. For a permanent use, a modem is necessary while foe a short term or periodic use, one can take advantage of the cards (LAN cards) provided by prepaid wireless internet service providers.

The expenses one needs to incur for enjoying these services are reasonable and moderate though it highly depends on the internet service provider (ISP) and to a very high extent, depends on the usage and the plan. Say for instance, AT&T, a leading service provider charges around 15$ to 50$ subject to various plans. One needs to compromise either on the bandwidth (speed) or on the cost.

The advantages of cheap mobile broadband are two-fold. Apart from providing speedy mobile internet services, the cost one needs to waste on paying the rental for a landline or dial-up connection is eliminated. This is an interesting offer for students studying in abroad as they are up just for a temporary stay. Many service providers take more interest when it comes to signing a deal with the students. Thus with all these, cheap mobile broadband has become cheaper for students.

Cheap broadband services seem a reality only due to the advent of a number of sophisticated, compact and computer compatible devices like the USB dongle and the USB modem. These devices allow one to access internet anytime by just plugging the device on to the networking device, say a laptop or a mobile. These devices have made mobile broadband as cheap as seven and a half Euros. What more? All these at a speed of minimum 2Mbps. No cheap mobile broadband service charges more than £10 a month. Thus it is not only a cost effective service, indeed really a cheap service too.

The companies providing cheap mobile broadband services are the top network providers for mobile enhancing their network services to offer broadband internet services like the Vodafone. Other providers are orange mobile broadband, O2 mobile broadband, etc. These companies are known for their freaky compact USB devices like the sticks which find a great market among students. Other service providers like the 3 mobile broadband and T-mobile broadband target the cost as the marketing factor. They offer real cheaper services among others.

One of the basic needs for mobile broadband is that the mobile be of 3G type. Elimination of this constraint is what the focus of top mobile network providers are. Big service providers like Vodafone are investing a lot of capital to make mobiles and broadband services compatible. The companies are attracting customers by offering free initial services too and thus mobile computing has indeed become really cheap.

For business professionals constantly on the move, Cheap mobile broadband services are a boon. These enable them to travel anywhere across the globe and stay connected regardless of the lack of a laptop or connection. These services benefit the students even more. Universities like NUS give an ID and passkey for the students who can sign in and get cheap broadband services in mobiles very easily. Exclusive compact USB devices in the form of sticks have replaced the traditional USB modems and dongles thus making cheap mobile broadband more handy and portable.

To best explain the features and advantages of wireless internet for laptops, one basically needs to understand the basic working. The provision of wireless internet for laptops is generally of two forms:

• Bluetooth technology
• Wi-Fi technology

With mobiles becoming a more compact form of computers, Bluetooth has become a most popular technology for transferring and exchanging data and other files among mobile devices. Using the Bluetooth technology for wireless internet services in laptops exploits all the advantages of the mobile computing. The laptops of today have a built-in internal Bluetooth hardware. More traditional methods are using a Bluetooth device say the mobile phones equipped with technologies like GPRS and 3G.Once the service is activated from an internet service provider one can stay connected from their laptops.

Wi-Fi is another advantageous technology that makes wireless internet for laptops possible. This technology requires that the laptop be operated in a Wi-Fi zone. This allows creation of a network of similar devices and one can enjoy uninterrupted data transfer. With accessing internet in laptops becoming almost indispensible, the no. of Wi-Fi enabled zones are increasing rapidly across the world. And increasing along with it is the no. of service providers.
The other important features related to the wireless internet are the interesting forms of the wireless devices. Now most of the laptops have built-in hardware for the purpose while for others, one can make use of the USB ports as most of the devices for wireless internet for laptops are USB compatible. One can also buy LAN cards from local service providers and plug it into your laptops in a much similar way as USB devices.

The benefits of using wireless internet for laptops are increasing day by day with their speeds approaching incredible limits. The service providers have managed to increase the speed to many times faster the speed of dial-up networks. Very high speeds of about 7 Mbps are now possible with Wi-Fi technology. With the integration of such high speeds the technology allows for transfer of any type of file and hence there is no looking back to dial up.

The main advantage of this prepaid wireless broadband technology is that it provides internet services anywhere across the world and hence one need not waste time wandering in search of  Wi-Fi zones which is almost is a hardly found tech-space in countries like Australia. Thus this technology allows one to have unlimited internet access even while holidaying the most remote corners of the earth. Enhancing the technology is the provision of inviting features like the 3G and LTE along with this which enables one to stay connected with the web world wherever one is.

Analogous to other wireless technologies, the service providers equip this broadband technology with a USB modem and thus by integrating it as a part of one’s PC or laptop, prepaid wireless broadband services are made more compact and easily portable. The providers have taken much care to make the technology strongly compatible with the operating systems of today namely the windows, Mac and Linux.

The leading providers of these prepaid wireless broadband services are Verizon wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc to name a few. There are many companies providing GSM services but a majority of them stick to CDMA technology. Among the providers in US, AT&T mobility offers the best services. Their services extend a wide horizon which includes GoPhone Prepaid, Dobson Cellular, Edge Wireless and Centennial Wireless. These wide varieties of services offered by them has made them one of the top providers of prepaid wireless broadband services and the number of subscribers for the company have reached the eighty million mark. The company takes pride in integrating a whole range of new technologies for the data say the GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSPA which not any other company manages to.

The speed, reliability and the technology used classifies the providers. Companies like Data Jack and Ready Mobile drags customers by offering free services for first few days while companies like T-Mobile and Verizon target the wide coverage possible to sell their services better. Other companies with a reasonably higher number of subscribers are Alaska Communications Systems, Bluegrass Cellular, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, and GCI wireless and metro PCS among others. Sprint Nextel is one of the leading service providers offering a whole range of broadband services with prepaid facility and their services mobile prepaid too. Providing services on the same lines, Cricket communications is emerging as one among the top providers too.

Thus prepaid wireless broadband technology is fast catching up in the internet world.