Choosing the Right Wireless Internet Provider in Your City

Everyone wants to go wireless these days, and why not? You don't really need wires anymore, especially when all they do is get in the way and limit your mobility. Wireless technologies have advanced so much lately that they're no longer at a disadvantage when it comes to speed and reliability. They're also more affordable than they've ever been before as well. You may already be sold on the fact that you could benefit greatly from a wireless internet connection, but which provider should you choose? You've actually got a few options to choose from, though only one is going to make sense.

An example of a wireless option that doesn't make sense for most people is satellite internet. The one thing that it does have going for it is that it's a broadband connection you can sign up for no matter where you happen to live, which makes it a great replacement for dial-up where cable and DSL are not available. Other than that, because it's somewhat slow, cannot be used in a mobile capacity, and a bit expensive, it's not a good wireless internet solution for most people.

Sometimes Wi-Fi is advertised as being a wireless connection that people can use throughout their city, but that's a bit misleading. Wi-Fi was first designed to allow computers in a home to connect to each other without wires. Its range was and has always been limited to a few hundred feet at the very most and under ideal conditions. If there are obstacles in the way such as walls or even trees, you can expect the signal to weaken significantly. Since most cities have a lot of buildings scattered around and because most also span a distance much greater than a few hundred feet, one Wi-Fi router is not going to be enough to provide a complete wireless internet solution. In order to do that, numerous routers have to be spread out over the entire city. Thus, you're likely to end up being disconnected a lot as you move around over long distances,which ultimately makes Wi-Fi an undesirable solution.

The only thing left to consider is a cellular internet connection, and this is where you can expect to find what you're looking for. This technology has advanced a lot lately from the somewhat lackluster 3G network to the fast, reliable and affordable 4G network. At the current time though, there are a number of different standards competing against each other. As far as performance goes, there really isn't a big difference between them, contrary to what their marketing campaigns might lead to you to believe. They're all going to be plenty fast for most people. The only difference arises from coverage areas.

Although it's best to look up coverage maps online, you're probably going to discover that Wimax has all the others beat, which is due in large part to the fact that it has been around a lot longer than the others. Because of this, it should be your choice for wireless connectivity.