How Does Wireless Internet Work

Wireless Internet connections let us use mobile Internet devices, like iPhones, laptops, and so on. How does the web page information travel through the air to such devices? This article explains how it works.

How does information travel through the air?

Wireless Internet travels through the air and reaches your mobile device. But how does it travel through the air? With radio waves. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation. Light is another type of electromagnetic radiation that we can see with our eyes. Our eyes are not designed to see radio waves, but they travel through the air just like light does.

How does a mobile Internet device receive a wireless signal?

Mobile Internet devices include a type of antenna that can detect the radio waves in the air. An antenna is sensitive to the vibrations of radio waves, and creates an electric current when it starts receiving those vibrations. The electric current recreates the Internet data, kind of like a Morse code sent by telegraph, only a lot more complex.

Where do the wireless signals come from?

A wireless signal is created by special equipment that is designed to generate radio waves. A radio transmitter is a piece of equipment that makes tiny vibrations when an electric current is applied to it. The tiny vibrations are radio waves, and they fill the air. Think about it like turning on a lightbulb; the light fills the room while it's on. Radio waves are similar to light, except that we can't see them. If the electric current being applied to a transmitter is turned on and off in a pattern, it can represent web page data in a code that a mobile device can then decode.