Week Three: Telecommunications

It was interesting reading about the technical aspects of telecommunications, which has become such an important part of so many people's everyday lives. Since I don't have a smartphone (yet), I primarily connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi, both at home and wherever I can find a hotspot. I had seen the number 802.11 before, but didn't know exactly what it meant: a family of standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that continues to evolve. I was (and am) particularly interested in learning more about WiMAX, specifically because I wonder what effect it will have on the need for people to get smartphones and pay for data plans considering the fact that a WiMAX access point has a 31-mile radius.