Eli5:Why is it that cell phones , with their tiny antenaes are able to download files at LTE speeds inside concrete buildings from cell towers kilometers away yet getting wifi to work behind a corner is an exercise in frustration?
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I wasn’t satisfied with the other answers. This is my best Eli5. *Source: used to work at AT&T.*
– Your phone usually hums a low tone (under 1ghz) which can penetrate most walls with ease and reach a cell tower that’s listening miles away. Your phone has to compete with all of the other phones and cell towers talking within miles of you, but luckily every phone and tower abides by strict rules and has a ton of space to adjust their pitch so they know who is talking.
– On the other hand, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, your phone has to use a shrill voice which barely reaches the other room to talk to your router (2.4ghz or 5ghz). As it happens, everything else in your house is forced to talk at only those 2 high pitches and it’s really hard for everyone to hear each other. Kind of like a school cafeteria at lunchtime. Even your microwave, when running, has to use this same shrill pitch.
T-Mobile service used to really suck in comparison to Verizon and AT&T because it was only licensed to talk in a relatively high pitched voice. Luckily, the government let them start humming that low, penetrating frequency like the other carriers, in exchange for a bag of money, of course.
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