Wireless

In the RDM series, Wireless is a term used to describe short- to medium-range radio communications from ship to ship, or ship to planet.

Wireless appears to work using radio frequencies available from a similar electromagnetic spectrum as used on the Earth we live on today. As such, wireless is limited in range based on other celestial bodies, antenna direction, nuclear and other man-made EM interference, distance (where the time to send or receive a message might be measured in minutes and not fractions of a second), and broadcast reception or transmission limits of the vehicles in communication. A Raptor, for instance, may be able to hear transmissions from its mothership, Galactica, but may be too far away to return a reply as it may not have as strong a wireless transceiver than Galactica to push the message.

Sharon Valerii used a probe to extend her Raptor's transmission range in principle after her ship left Caprica with several refugees during the Cylon Attack (Mini-Series). The probe contained an automated distress call with its own wireless transmitter. She used to the probe in hopes of transmitting her call for help outside of the Cylon fleet, which were jamming many Colonial communication channels.

On advanced Battlestars, wireless communication between CIC and other departments of the ship may likely be the standard mode of communication. On ships such as Galactica, however, communication is done through hardwired phones and public-address systems per Commander Adama's orders that no networked computers (including communication computers) be used onboard to avoid Cylon infiltration.

Wireless is also used for civilian communication, such as the Talk Wireless network for public fleet entertainment and programming.

Note

It is likely that dead Humano-Cylon agent's bodies transmit their unit's data to another copy by a form of wireless, although this has not been confirmed through canonical information.