The speed at which the internet developed is mind-bending. Only forty years have passed since the TCP/IP protocol was implemented. Now, we can access the internet without wires, even in the most remote places, at speeds that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

But with all the improvements, many risks have emerged too. Constant tracking, ads, and geo-targeting limitations have made it harder for people to reap the full benefits of the internet. It’s essential to keep up with the newest trends to enhance your Internet experience. That’s where proxies come in.

What are proxies?

Proxies are getaways to the World Wide Web. They act as a barrier between you and the internet so that every connection to the web is first sent to the proxy and only then routed back to you. This process changes your IP address - a string of numbers and letters uniquely identifying your device and location.

Without a proxy, any website can track your activity and block your connection if it doesn’t feel you are welcome. By connecting to a proxy server first, you ensure that your IP address is hidden and the website can only see the IP of the proxy server.

Proxies are commonly categorized by how they achieve this task. Datacenter proxies, for example, are created in large data centers with servers housing thousands of virtual IPs that you can use to route your network. These proxies are quite fast and cheap but are frequently blocked or identified by the website's server. 

If you want to perform more confidential tasks on the web, residential proxies are the way to go. They are tied to a physical device and location, with an IP address verified by the internet service provider (ISP). It ensures the difficulty, or, often, impossibility for the website to identify you are using a proxy.

Commonly cited drawbacks of residential proxies are the price and speed of your connection. While this is true to some extent, there are some scenarios where you will need an IP address of a different origin.

Mobile IP addresses and proxies

It’s estimated that a least half of the whole traffic on the internet comes from mobile IP addresses. Usually, this comes from smartphones, tablets, or other devices that can connect to a cellular tower and receive a mobile IP. The most important difference between these IPs is that they adapt to changing locations.

If you move from one house to another, your ISP needs to assign a different residential IP address for your home router. It is because the IP is tied to the location. Mobile IPs are tied to the location of the cellular tower they connect to.

However, since can travel with your phone in hand and need a constant internet connection, the phone itself isn’t tied to one location. Instead, the connection is tied to the location cellular tower. 

But once you are closer to another tower, the device can easily change the connection.

That’s why mobile IPs are dynamic - constantly changing the number and letter string to find the most optimal performance. Many mobile internet providers even switch the IPs of the same tower regularly to reduce loads and improve performance.

Well-built mobile proxies make use of these facts to make your connection faster and more secure than ordinary proxies. Since most internet users use mobile connections, it's easier to blend in and void tracking. The fact that the mobile IP is constantly changing further solidifies your privacy.

The ways mobile proxies improve browsing

It’s common knowledge that websites target certain users with different versions of their website. Based on geographical regions, browsers, device types, and other information, they decide what to display. It could be something as trivial as the language, but it could also mean you are overpaying for something that is actually sold cheaper.

Mobile proxies are unique in that they can improve your browsing experience by opening the possibility to access data that is only accessible to mobile users. At the same time, you can still target geographical locations and rotate multiple IP addresses as needed.

Datacenter proxies and even residential ones often create a struggle for the user where he constantly has to solve CAPTCHA tests to prove its legitimacy for the server. Mobile proxies do not suffer from this problem. 

Even if mobile IP addresses are available from proxy providers, they are on rotation for everyone - proxy users and usual carrier customers. Attacking these IP addresses with CAPTCHA tests would get most websites out of business. 

Another crucial improvement for browsing brought by mobile proxies is the access to mobile apps. The share of apps for e-commerce shops and other websites is rapidly growing, and the part of the internet with websites is shrinking.

You might not be able to access some apps with a datacenter or residential proxy. Even if you run an emulator on a computer to access the app, it might block your connection because of the IP address. That is why mobile proxies are getting more and more crucial.

Use cases of mobile proxies

An ordinary internet user, ignorant about privacy, might not see the need to use a proxy. But even besides privacy, there are certain use cases where mobile proxies are irreplaceable.

Most of the automated tasks on the internet, such as purchasing items or scraping data, managing multiple social media accounts, SEO analysis, and ad verification, require sending automated requests to websites.

If used irresponsibly, automated software can crash websites, so most of them are banning suspicious connections. For this reason, it is essential to use proxies to avoid suspicion. Mobile proxies specifically are irreplaceable for this task.

Conclusion

Mobile proxies are not only fast, can target specific locations, but also allow you to blend in with the crowd while changing your IP address to make it even less suspicious. There is no other proxy type that can achieve such performance and privacy that efficiently.