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Wireless Data Modem are used in the WiFi and WiMax standards, operating at microwave frequency

WiFi is principally used in laptops or notebook for Internet connections (wireless access point) and wireless application protocol(WAP).

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Direct Broadcast Satelitte, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones all use modems to communicate, as do most other wireless services today. Modern telecommunications and data networks also make extensive use of radio modems where long distance data links are required. Such systems are an important part of the PSTN, and are also in common use for high-speed computer networks links to outlying areas where fibre is not economical.

Even where a cable is installed, it is often possible to get better performance or make other parts of the system simpler by using radio frequencies and modulation techniques through a cable. Coaxial cable has a very large bandwidth, however signal attenuation becomes a major problem at high data rates if a digital signal is used. By using a modem, a much larger amount of digital data can be transmitted through a single piece of wire. Digital cable television and cable Internet services use radio frequency modems to provide the increasing bandwidth needs of modern households. Using a modem also allows for frequency-division multiple access to be used, making full-duplex digital communication with many users possible using a single wire.

Wireless modems come in a variety of types, bandwidths, and speeds. Wireless modems are often referred to as transparent or smart. They transmit information that is modulated onto a carrier frequency to allow many simultaneous wireless communication links to work simultaneously on different frequencies.

Transparent modems operate in a manner similar to their phone line modem cousins. Typically, they were half duplex, meaning that they could not send and receive data at the same time. Typically transparent modems are polled in a round robin manner to collect small amounts of data from scattered locations that do not have easy access to wired infrastructure. Transparent modems are most commonly used by utility companies for data collection.

Smart modems come with a media access controller inside which prevents random data from colliding and resends data that is not correctly received. Smart modems typically require more bandwidth than transparent modems, and typically achieve higher data rates. The IEEE 802.11 standard defines a short range modulation scheme that is used on a large scale throughout the world.

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Note that the values given are maximum values, and actual values may be slower under certain conditions (for example, noisy phone lines).For a complete list see the companion article list if device bandwith . Please note baud == symbols per second.

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As telephone-based 56k modems began losing popularity, some Internet Service Providers such as Netzero and Juno started using pre-compression to increase the throughput & maintain their customer base. As example, the Netscape ISP uses a compression program that squeezes images, text, and other objects at the server, just prior to sending them across the phone line. The server-side compression operates much more efficiently than the on-the-fly compression of V.44-enabled modems. Typically website text is compacted to 4% thus increasing effective throughput to approximately 1,300 kbit/s. The accelerator also pre-compresses Flash executables and images to approximately 30% and 12%, respectively.

The drawback of this approach is a loss in quality, where the graphics become heavily compacted and smeared, but the speed is dramatically improved such that web pages load in less than 5 seconds, and the user can manually choose to view the uncompressed images at any time. The ISPs employing this approach advertise it as "DSL speeds over regular phone lines" or simply "high speed dial-up".

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Today's V.42, V.42bis and V.44 standards allow the modem to transmit data faster than its basic rate would imply. For instance, a 53.3 kbit/s connection with V.44 can transmit up to 53.3*6 == 320 kbit/s using pure text. However, the compression ratio tends to vary due to noise on the line, or due to the transfer of already-compressed files (ZIP files, JPEG images, MP3 audio, MPEG video).At some points the modem will be sending compressed files at approximately 50 kbit/s, uncompressed files at 160 kbit/s, and pure text at 320 kbit/s, or any value in between.

In such situations a small amount of memory in the modem, a buffer, is used to hold the data while it is being compressed and sent across the phone line, but in order to prevent overflow of the buffer, it sometimes becomes necessary to tell the computer to pause the datastream. This is accomplished through hardware flow control using extra lines on the modem–computer connection. The computer is then set to supply the modem at some higher rate, such as 320 kbit/s, and the modem will tell the computer when to start or stop sending data.

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In the late 1990s Rockwell and U.S. Robotics introduced new technology based upon the digital transmission used in modern telephony networks. The standard digital transmission in modern networks is 64 kbit/s but some networks use a part of the bandwidth for remote office signaling (eg to hang up the phone), limiting the effective rate to 56 kbit/s DSo. This new technology was adopted into ITU standards V.90 and is common in modern computers. The 56 kbit/s rate is only possible from the central office to the user site (downlink) and in the United States, government regulation limits the maximum power output to only 53.3 kbit/s. The uplink (from the user to the central office) still uses V.34 technology at 33.6k.

Later in V.92, the digital PCM technique was applied to increase the upload speed to a maximum of 48 kbit/s, but at the expense of download rates. For example a 48 kbit/s upstream rate would reduce the downstream as low as 40 kbit/s, due to echo on the telephone line. To avoid this problem, V.92 modems offer the option to turn off the digital upstream and instead use a 33.6 kbit/s analog connection, in order to maintain a high digital downstream of 50 kbit/s or higher.V.92 also adds two other features. The first is the ability for users who have call waiting to put their dial-up internet connection on hold for extended periods of time while they answer a call. The second feature is the ability to quickly connect to one's ISP. This is achieved by remembering the analog and digital characteristics of the telephone line, and using this saved information to reconnect at a fast pace.

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The V.61 Standard introduced Analog Simultaneous Voice and Data (ASVD). This technology allowed user's of v.61 modems to engage in point-to-point voice conversations with each other while their respective modems communicated.

In 1995, the first DSVD (Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data) modems became available to consumers, and the standard was ratified as v.70 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1996.

Two DSVD modems can establish a completely digital link between each other over standard phone lines. Sometimes referred to as "the poor man's ISDN," and employing a similar technology, v.70 compatible modems allow for a maximum speed of 33.6 kbps between peers. By using a majority of the bandwidth for data and reserving part for voice transmission, DSVD modems allow users to pick up a telephone handset interfaced with the modem, and initiate a call to the other peer.

One practical use for this technology was realized by early two player video gamers, who could hold voice communication with each other while in game over the PSTN.

Advocates of DSVD envisioned whiteboard sharing and other practical applications for the standard, however, with advent of cheaper 56kbps analog modems intended for internet connectivity, peer-to-peer data transmission over the PSTN became quickly irrelevant. Also, the standard was never expanded to allow for the making or receiving of arbitrary phone calls while the modem was in use, due to the cost of infrastructure upgrades to telcos, and the advent of ISDN and DSL technologies which effectively accomplished the same goal.

Today, Multi-Tech is the only known company to continue to support a v.70 compatible modem. While their device also offers v.92 at 56kbps, it remains significantly more expensive than comparable modems sans v.70 support.

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