Modem

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What Does Modem Mean?

A modem is a network device that both modulates and demodulates analog carrier signals (called sine waves) for encoding and decoding digital information for processing. Modems accomplish both of these tasks simultaneously and, for this reason, the term modem is a combination of “modulate” and “demodulate.”

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Techopedia Explains Modem

The most common use for modems is for both sending and receiving of the digital information between personal computers. This information used to be transmitted over telephone lines using V.92, the last dial-up standard, to an analog modem that would convert the signal back to a digital format for a computer to read.

Now, access to the Internet more commonly takes place using high-speed broadband modems.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.