Quiz: Cell phone tech

1. This is the science of exchanging information wirelessly over significant distances.
a. radiophonistics< /br> b. telecommunications
c. Marconiology
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2. One of the basic challenges in cell phone technology was figuring out how to allow several callers to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. What is this concept called?
a. synchronous signaling
b. multiplexing
c. communication concurrence
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3. When did first generation (1G) cellular services become commercially available?
a. late 1960s
b. mid 1970s
c. early 1980s
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4. In the early 1990s in North America, a second generation (2G) of cellular services began to evolve when mobile carriers like Verizon deployed CDMA to multiplex up to 64 calls per channel. What does CDMA stand for?
a. Code-Division Multiple Access
b. Channel-Division Managed Architecture
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5. Around the same time, other mobile carriers like AT&T adopted a competing standard for multiplexing called GSM. What does GSM stand for?
a. Global System for Mobile
b. Gateway Session Modulation
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6. Which Danish mathematician originally conceived the theory of traffic engineering, a discipline that attempts to make sure the number of failed calls is as close to zero as possible?
a. Agner Erlang
b. Ole Worm
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7. To prevent a caller from thinking his connection has been lost during a long period of silence in a conversation, carriers use this type of program to generate background noise.
a. comfort noise generator
b. fuzzing
c. interference
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8. What do you call a wireless access point that improves cellular reception inside a home or office building?
a. hoot-n-holler
b. femtocell
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9. ARPU, an industry acronym for the income generated by a cell phone subscriber, is the metric a carrier uses to evaluate whether or not all revenue-generating potential has been exploited. What does ARPU stand for?
a. average revenue per user
b. acquired remittance per uplink
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10. What year was the first cell phone commercially available in the U.S.?
a. 1975
b. 1983
c. 1991
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BONUS: Which of these wireless technologies could support users at ranges up to 30 miles?
a. WiFi
b. WiMAX
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