The need for mobile phones and tablets is of prime importance these days. The requirement is not as such for luxury, but it has formed an integral part of one’s life. The purpose of a smartphone with an appropriate internet connection is the best blend too. Of course, there is no cellphone without internet and this article will throw light on how does a cellphone work with the SIM card to connect it to the internet.
Let us quickly understand what mobile internet means…
What is Mobile Internet?
Scaling the internet dimensions to the size of a cellphone’s internet browser is mobile internet. As such, the GSM phone’s tiny removable chip is called the SIM card. This acts as the bridge between the phone and its connectivity. One must understand that a smartphone without a SIM card cannot be used to make phone calls. While there are other ways to connect your smartphone to the internet without the need for a SIM card, but the presence of that chip shall establish connection 24 hours, provided there is a good amount of signal available from your service provider through their mobile towers.
How does a SIM Card connect your Phone to the Internet?
There are two ways to connect your smartphone to the internet:
- SIM Card (Mobile Data)
- Wi-Fi
The second one requires an external Internet Service provider’s source, whereas the first one forms the more or less inbuilt internet connection to your cellphone irrespective of wherever you travel. This requires a telephone service provider against the Wi-Fi connecting methods.
Connecting Smartphone to Cellular Network – A Fundamental Idea
- Fundamental Concept 1: As saw earlier, if a SIM card must enable an internet connection to your cellphone, there must be the presence of a cellular network or telephone network. The SIM card establishes a connection with the cellular network with the help of data transfer. This is the same technique your PC does as it connects to Wi-Fi.
- Fundamental Concept 2: Every smartphone is enabled with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). This is the technology that establishes the connection between SIM cards to the network by transferring data to and fro. As such, WAP stands as the universal standard for any wireless communication.
- Fundamental Concept 3: The mobile phone with WAP and the SIM card transfers data through radio waves. These radio waves are the ones that send the digital information to the cellular tower and retrieves it too. The mobile phones are connected to the mobile tower constantly through radio waves to have a constant network in your signal.
As such, this is how you can also make calls and data transfer in terms of internet connection also works the same way.
Cellphone and Internet – Step Ahead
The three fundamental concepts lay the foundation for an internet connection through the SIM card. This column gives a deeper insight into how the data transfer happens between the phone and the cellular tower.
The cellphone constantly searches for the signal to establish a network with the SIM card. Though there are many frequencies of signal available, it chooses the one that is offered by your telephone service provider. The data transfer starts as the connection is established.
As the data transfer starts from your cellphone, the WAP sends a request to the gateway server. The server in turn attempts to retrieve the data from the website in the form of HTTP. This is converted to WML, which is the one that makes it compatible with your cellphone. This WML is again sent to the WAP on the device with the mobile format of the web page. And the mobile browser, being the interface displays the same on your cellphone screen.
Different technologies have evolved over the years to speed up this process. You certainly would have heard about the 3G or the 4G or even the 5G now. All guarantees faster data transfer. With 3G having a data transfer speed of 2Mbps, imagine the upgraded technologies then.