The mobile world moves at a breakneck pace, and it's difficult to keep up--even without the technical

jargon most industry insiders throw around. And they do love to toss those terms about.

This week, I continue with the techno-babble trend with a few more network terms for 4G. (Who doesn't love

those?)

So for some light reading, here are a few terms telecom Normal the north face sale experts throw around with the assumption that

everyone understands them.

TD-LTE: Just when you thought there possibly couldn't be anymore 4G terms, Clearwire pops up and decides to

switch to a technology that hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the past. The TD stands for time division,

making an increasingly complex alphabet soup of a name--all for one network technology.

At the risk of complicating an already befuddling subject, there are currently two types of LTE. The one

that Verizon has been bragging about is a flavor called frequency division multiplexing, or FD-LTE. The

technology uses two different pieces of spectrum, which act like separate pipes, to send and receive data. 

north face fleece piece of spectrum into different time slots to dynamically

assign what piece of data gets sent and what gets received. The only risk is if the TD-LTE network gets

loaded, there's a higher risk of interference.

The marketing folks at Verizon wisely chose to skip these details because, in reality, no one but a few

engineers really care.

Clearwire was quick to establish some legitimacy for the technology, noting that China Mobile and its more

than 600 million subscribers will be using the standard, as will Japan's Softbank. That gives the vendors a

ton of reasons to look at this technology.

LTE-Advanced: Clearwire also touted the network as LTE-Advanced ready. So what's this mystery third

standard? It's what LTE will eventually grow into, hopefully clearing up a lot the jargon. LTE-Advanced was

one of the original standards that the International Telecommunications Union designated as true 4G, before

broadening the definition to include the other flavors.

The ITU specified that LTE-Advanced would offer speeds of 100 megabits per second when the device is moving 

north face jackets for mens Verizon's LTE network, and a 1-gigabit per second

connection when stationary or moving slowly.

But if LTE-Advanced is considered 4G, what are the marketing executives at the telcos going to call their

upgraded networks? 4.5G? 5G?

MVNO: An acronym for mobile virtual network operator. It's an uber-complicated title for a company that

buys wireless capacity and service on a wholesale basis, and resells it to consumers. The most notable MVNO

was Virgin Mobile, before Sprint Nextel scooped up the company to augment its own prepaid business.
TracFone remains the largest MVNO, buying capacity from several of the major wireless carriers and selling

prepaid service through a variety of retail outlets, from Wal-Mart to local convenience stores.

MVNOs rose to prominence a few years ago, but are known more for their failures than successes. Sean "P.

Diddy" Combs even stood on stage at a wireless conference more than six years ago and proclaimed, "I am an

MVNO." I'm not sure even if he knew what he was talking about, since the P. Diddy cell phone service never

emerged.

While TracFone and Virgin Mobile sold prepaid service and lured in low-end users, companies such as ESPN

and Walt Disney took a crack at attracting high-end ones. Both used Sprint's network to sell their own

branded service. But they, along with many others, including Amped and Qwest, ended up folding their

wireless business as they quickly realized their services weren't different enough from the carriers to

justify a premium price tag.

Still, Sprint hopes to revive interest in MVNOs by offering 4G services on a wholesale basis.

Seasonality: The term refers to normal ups and downs that businesses encounter at certain times in the 

north face fleece quarter is typically weak because a lot of college

students are disconnecting their service before heading home for the summer.

The prepaid companies, for example, all reported disappointing results. They largely blamed seasonal

pressures, since the second quarter is often a letdown after a strong first three months of the year.

So it's also a convenient excuse companies can hide behind if their results are disappointing.

Embargo: This is a reference to the potential ban on the importation of foreign products into the U.S., a

punishment that can be handed out by the U.S. International Trade Commission. It's particularly relevant

now because EVERY technology company is suing EVERY OTHER technology company.

For example, Apple and Samsung have a pending dispute with the ITC. The ITC said on Tuesday that its

members have voted to begin an investigation on Apple's behalf to look at whether Samsung infringes on its

intellectual property, just the latest in a long-running soap opera.

Companies like using the ITC because the threat of an embargo immediately gets both parties back to the

bargaining table. No ban has ever been enforced on a technology company; all disputes have been resolved

before it gets to that point.

Still, the ITC has increasingly become another battlefield for tech companies to work out their rivalries.