Hardy Telecommunications kicked off a new year of its Youth Advisory Board by giving six local high school students a tour of its corporate headquarters and educating them about mobile phones’ reliance on the landline network to operate.
Hardy Marketing/Human Resource Director Derek Barr and Public Relations/Business Development Representative Heather Robbins welcomed six students for the 2012-13 school year. Derek asked the students how they spend their time online and how often they use mobile phones.
Derek then explained how mobile phones use the landline network to connect calls and deliver data. Hardy Telecommunications provides a fiber-optic connection to the local cell towers. When people access their mobile phones to make a call or text or browse the Internet, the data is carried from the cell tower over the Hardy landline network, a process called backhaul.
“A wireless signal doesn’t have nearly the capacity to transmit data as fiber-optic technology does, both in amount of data and in speed,” Derek said. “That’s why mobile phone companies always want to find the nearest fiber network when they’re thinking of putting up a tower.”
To encourage the construction of cell towers, HardyNet is happy to work with wireless providers to get fiber to a tower, he said.
Even a mobile phone call to another mobile phone using the same tower will often travel over a landline network in order to be connected. The call information is transmitted to a mobile switching center, which then routes the call to the proper destination. The mobile switching center can be located far away from where the two phones are operating.
Derek said the reliance of mobile phones upon the landline network is even more important now that more and more smartphones are being used to conduct business over the Internet.
“You see advertisements where wireless companies urge you to use a wi-fi Internet connection when available,” he said. “What they’re asking you to do is use another company’s Internet service, like HardyNet, so that their wireless signals won’t be jammed with too much data and slow down operations.”
Hardy formed its Youth Advisory Board in 2007 to educate students about Hardy Telecommunications and the telecommunications industry, and for the students to share their ideas and thoughts about technology important to them. The group is comprised of students from East Hardy and Moorefield high schools.
This year’s Youth Advisory Board members are Paula Smith, East Hardy junior; Krysten Ayers, Moorefield junior; Ian Im, East Hardy sophomore; Makayla Miller, Moorefield sophomore; RaeAnn Orndorff, East Hardy freshman; and Josh Ograbisz, Moorefield freshman.