 | Parts of this article (those related to AWS-2, AWS-3, AWS-4 [not currently mentioned]) need to be updated. (May 2017) |
Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) is a wireless telecommunications spectrum band used for mobile voice and data services, video, and messaging. AWS is used in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. It replaces some of the spectrum formerly allocated to Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS), sometimes referred to as Wireless Cable, that existed from 2150 to 2162 MHz.
The AWS band uses microwave frequencies in several segments: from 1695 to 2200 MHz. The service is intended to be used by mobile devices such as wireless phones for mobile voice, data, and messaging services. Most manufacturers of smartphone mobile handsets provide versions of their phones that include radios that can communicate using the AWS spectrum. Though initially limited, device support for AWS has steadily improved the longer the band has been in general use, with most high-end and many mid-range handsets supporting it over UMTS, LTE and 5G NR.