Eli5: Why do we need an Internet connection to make video calls? Why can we just do it through the cell towers like a normal call?
In: Technology
Transmitting voice takes very little “space” compared to high quality video. This space is called bandwidth and, in simplification, the bigger the bandwidth the more data you can send.
Modern cell towers are also used for mobile data (internet connection) so technically you can video call through a cell tower.
There are several generations of cell tower signal, 5G is the latest common one. In simplification, newer generations could carry more data but had less range. We keep some of the older generations because they have bigger range, and more importantly, so that older devices are still supported.
Mobile data became a thing in 2.5G (an evolution of 2G but not a big enough difference to be called a generation newer)
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