What protocol do cell towers use?

Whenever a cell phone is used, it emits an electromagnetic radio wave, called a radio frequency, that is received by the nearest cell tower’s antenna . Once the cell tower receives this signal, it will transmit the signals to a switching center.24 Tem 2021

Cell towers are also wired into a cable network , which is, again, more fiber-optic cable. In both cases, those wired connections on the router and the cell tower send your internet activity back into a global network of mostly cables.

Sprint, Verizon and many smaller carriers use CDMA – a protocol developed by Qualcomm, and used primarily for newer cell phone networks in the Americas and East Asia (Korea, Japan, etc). Cingular and T-Mobile use GSM – which began in Europe and is the most popular protocol worldwide.