The past two decades have marked an unprecedented growth in size and sophistication of almost every aspect of telecommunications. Two major achievements stand out in this development. First, the Internet network, the quintessence of data communications and public/private access to information. Second, Cellular Mobile Radio wireless communication, the untethered jewel of voice communication beyond borders that opened another door to worldwide conversation. As a result, today, there are hundreds of millions of users with continuous access to the Internet and over three billion users of cell phones.

Cellular mobile communications has moved in a decade through three generations. The first generation was marked by the need to build a large physical/geographical presence. The second generation has moved from analog formats to digital communications and added features that allow decent data services running along with voice communications. More recent advancements have led to the third generation of cellular mobile transmission with a focus on providing data services in the class of broadband communications.

In the same span of time, a similar growth has taken place in the wireless expansion of well-established networking technologies, commonly known as “fixed wireless”. The most popular customer premises technology, the Local Area Network, has become Wireless LAN, matching its data rate with wired frontrunners. This metamorphosis has continued by adopting voice communication over a traditional data dedicated technology. Identical phenomena took place in the Wireless Personal Area Network thanks to the Bluetooth, ZigBee, and other technologies.