Mobile broadband is wireless.

AuthorColby, Kent L.
PositionTELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Broadband" has become an ubiquitous term to include most any data connectivity ... on almost any device ... connecting to virtually any form of data network. That data can occur in the form of voice and video, as well.

Mobile broadband is more or less a marketing term for Internet access on devices ranging from mobile computers to smart phones. In turn, mobile computers can be any computer that is wireless, enabled with anything from a built-in wireless card to an external dongle. The mobile broadband technology world has expanded to include tablets, notebooks, netbooks, and cell or mobile phones and spans a multitude of technologies like EVDO, G3 and G4, piggybacking on mobile phone infrastructure. Connectivity also includes Wi-Fi, satellite and other proprietary wireless networking.

In other words, if it can move from one place to another, and stay connected or reconnect at speeds higher than dialup; it fits into the broad category of mobile broadband, pun intended.

ALASKA ABOUNDS WITH MOBILE BROADBAND

It's a broad state for broadband, but Alaska actually stands out in broadband availability. Rural Alaska is better served than most U.S. rural locales, thanks to the major investments from our Big Four providers, and from initiatives and grants funded by the state in the Rural Alaska Broadband Internet Access Program (grant program). This program, now in its fifth round, "provides funding to assist telecommunications companies and cable operators in deploying broadband Internet service in rural Alaska," according to the state's web site. The program continues to utilize federal and state efforts to facilitate Internet service and make such connectivity more affordable to communities in rural Alaska. The primary function of the grants is to defray the costs of deploying broadband service.

In the state's more populated corridors, the big players are Alaska Communications Systems (ACS), General Communications Inc. (GCI), AT&T Alaska and Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA). Together, they provide broadband to Alaska's businesses and citizens with efficient, effective, broadband data. Broadband coverage can be linked to in-state data-storage centers, hosting servers and even fleet management. Alaska's providers are partnered with...

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