What is EDGE?

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What is EDGE?
Nowadays, the use of cellular phones in accessing the Internet is widely used. Wireless network technology has improved a lot in terms of speed and availability of coverage. EDGE is a 2G network and one of the significant developments in wireless network technologies. EDGE is an acronym used for Enhanced Data GSM Environment. EDGE is also alternatively called as Enhanced Data Rates for GSM.

2D stands for 2nd generation, which is a term used for cell phone technology. Today, most cell phones utilize the 3G (3rd generation). However, this article is primarily created to cover some important details about the EDGE network technology. Deriving from its name, it is very clear that EDGE is a technology development. EDGE is considered an improvement on a technology that has already been in existence. EDGE is not essentially a 3rd generation technology so it is often referred as 2.7G.

Primarily, EDGE was developed for wireless data transfer. To be more particular, it is intended for sharing of videos and image. Moreover, it is also intended for browsing the Internet through a connection from a mobile phone. EDGE offers faster data transfer reaching four times the speed of ordinary GSM networks. Since the introduction of mobile phones capable of browsing the Internet, the need for faster transfer of data becomes important.

EDGE has not brought difficulty to carriers of wireless networks to upgrade their network capabilities. The good thing about EDGE is that the technology does not require hardware upgrade. The data speed increase is attained through sophisticated coding so upgrade of equipment is unnecessary. Software upgrade is all it took for the wireless carriers to attain the speed of 384 kbps.

It was in the year 2000 when EDGE has been available for the use of wireless carriers. However, it was only in 2003 when the giant wireless carrier, Cingular began to offer the technology upgrade to their network. Moreover, the company had also offered mobile Internet service dedicated for users of laptops. To enable the wireless connection, laptops must be equipped with PCMCIA card. Laptop users were able to enjoy wireless connection via WiFi. Moreover, they are able to connect as long as the location offers strong GSM signal.

Since the introduction of EDGE, it has replaced the slower GPRS technology. Today, the use of such technology was virtually offered by most cell phone companies. However, today EDGE has been replaced by a much faster technology. At this present time, WCDMA is widely used, a 3G technology, which offers 2mbps of data transfer. WCDMA stands for Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access.

Due to the advancement of wireless technology, most cell phone companies are exerting efforts to make the latest wireless technologies available to users. However, it is a given fact that coverage of such technologies is concentrated on locations with dense population. Mostly, people living in the urban areas enjoy the technology. On the other hand, people in rural areas do not have opportunity to enjoy such wireless technology. This is because cell sites are not much distributed in rural areas compared to major cities.

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