A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular phone, cell phone or handphone)[1] is an electronic device Electronics is that branch of science and technology which makes use of the controlled motion of electrons through different media and vacuum. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation, used for full duplex A duplex communication system is a system composed of two connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions two-way radio telecommunications Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a terrestrial cellular network of base stations , whereas satellite phones connect to orbiting satellites. Both networks are interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) over a cellular network A cellular network is a radio network made up of a number of cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area. This enables a large number of portable transceivers to communicate with each other and with fixed of base stations The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications known as cell sites A cell site is a term used to describe a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed on a radio mast or tower to create a cell in a cellular network. A cell site is composed of a tower or other elevated structure for mounting antennas, and one or more sets of transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors,. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a telephone with a wireless handset that communicates via radio waves with a base station connected to a fixed telephone line, usually within a limited range of its base station . The base station is on the subscriber premises, and attaches to the telephone network the same way a corded telephone does, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, whereas high-end mobile phones that offer more advanced computing ability are referred to as smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic 'feature phone'. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run applications based on platforms such as Java ME or BREW, a.

A mobile phone allows its user to make and receive telephone calls A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party to and from the public telephone network The public switched telephone network also referred to as the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It is a worldwide net of telephone lines, fiberoptic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables connected which includes other mobiles and fixed line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network A cellular network is a radio network made up of a number of cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area. This enables a large number of portable transceivers to communicate with each other and with fixed owned by a mobile network operator A mobile network operator , also known as mobile phone operator (or simply mobile operator or mobo ), carrier service provider (CSP), wireless service provider, wireless carrier, or cellular company, is a telephone company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers. A key feature of the cellular network is that it enables seamless telephone calls even when the user is moving around wide areas via a process known as handoff In cellular telecommunications, the term handover or handoff refers to the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another. In satellite communications it is the process of transferring satellite control responsibility from one earth station to another without loss or interruption or handover.

In addition to being a telephone The telephone , commonly referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sound, most commonly the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to one another. It is one of the most common household, modern mobile phones also support many additional services GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. The GSM standards are defined by the 3GPP collaboration and implemented in hardware and software by equipment manufacturers and mobile phone operators. The common standard makes it possible to use the same phones with, and accessories The typical cell phone has become somewhat obsolete; current cell phones offer embedded features such as memory databases for storing frequently called numbers, locking features for theft deterrence, crystallized displays, internet connection capabilities, and other useful features. With the addition of popular culture, science, and marketing the, such as SMS Short Message Service is a communication service component of the GSM mobile communication system, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between mobile phone devices. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application in the world, with 2.4 billion active users, or 74% of all mobile (or text Text messaging refers to the exchange of brief written messages between mobile and portable devices over cellular networks. While the original term was derived from referring to messages sent using the Short Message Service (SMS), it has since been extended to include messages containing image, video, and sound content (known as MMS messages). The) messages, email Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. Email systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which email server computer systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the email infrastructure,, Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and access, gaming, Bluetooth Bluetooth is an open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Created by telecoms vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices,, infrared Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 0.7 and 300 micrometres, which equates to a frequency range between approximately 1 and 430 THz, camera A camera is a device that records/stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images. The modern camera evolved from the camera obscura, MMS Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability which only allowed exchange of text messages up to 160 characters in length messaging, MP3 player A digital audio player, or DAP, usually referred to as an MP3 player, is a consumer electronic device that has the primary function of storing, organizing and playing audio files. Some DAPs are also referred to as portable media players as they have image-viewing and/or video-playing support, radio Radio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing some property of the radiated waves, such as and GPS The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides reliable location and time information in all weather and at all times and anywhere on or near the Earth when and where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely.

The first hand held phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper Martin Marty Cooper was the lead engineer of the Motorola team that developed the mobile phone (as distinct from the car phone). Cooper is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm, a company that works on researching smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks, and was the corporate director of Research and Development for Motorola of Motorola Motorola, Inc. is an American, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, and also designs and sells wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola's home and broadcast network in 1973, using a handset weighing in at two kilos.[2] In the year 1990, 12.4 million people worldwide had cellular subscriptions.[3] By the end of 2009, only 20 years later, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reached approximately 4.6 billion, 300 times the 1990 number, penetrating the developing economies Information and Communication Technologies for Development is a general term referring to the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within the field of socioeconomic development or international development. ICT4D concerns itself with directly applying information technology approaches to poverty reduction. ICTs can be and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid In economics, the bottom of the pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2.50 per day. The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” is used in particular by people developing new models of doing business that deliberately target that demographic, often using new.[4]

Contents

History

Mobile car phone, 1964 Several examples of non-flip mobile phones, from the early 2000s. Main article: History of mobile phones The history of mobile phones begins with early efforts to develop radio telephone technology and from two-way radios in vehicles and continues through to emergence of the modern mobile phone and its associated services

Radiophones A radiotelephone is a communications device that allows two or more people to talk using radio. There is disagreement about the definition of the term. There is a conflict among British English usage, American English usage, and historic use have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was a Canadian inventor who performed pioneering experiments in radio, including early—possibly the first— transmissions of voice and music. In his later career he received hundreds of patents for devices in fields such as high-powered transmitting, sonar, and television's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held mobile radio devices have been available since 1973.

In 1960, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was launched in Sweden. MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve (elsewhere, especially in Britain) is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space. Some special function vacuum tubes are filled with low-pressure gas: these are so-called soft and relays A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to operate a switching mechanism, but other operating principles are also used. Relays find applications where it is necessary to control a circuit by a low-power signal, or where several circuits must be controlled by one signal. The first relays were used in long, and had a weight of 40 kg. In 1962, a more modern version called Mobile System B (MTB) was launched, which was a push-button telephone, and which used transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals. It is made of a solid piece of semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals in order to enhance the telephone’s calling capacity and improve its operational reliability. In 1971 the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success.[5][6]

Martin Cooper Martin Marty Cooper was the lead engineer of the Motorola team that developed the mobile phone (as distinct from the car phone). Cooper is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm, a company that works on researching smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks, and was the corporate director of Research and Development for Motorola, a Motorola Motorola, Inc. is an American, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, and also designs and sells wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola's home and broadcast network researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for hand-held use in a non-vehicle setting, after a long race against Bell Labs Bell Laboratories is the research and development organization of Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) for the first portable mobile phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a hand-held mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel Joel S. Engel is an American engineer, known for fundamental contributions to the development of cellular networks of Bell Labs Bell Laboratories is the research and development organization of Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T).[7]

The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G 1G refers to the first-generation of wireless telephone technology, mobile telecommunications. These are the analog telecommunications standards that were introduced in the 1980s and continued until being replaced by 2G digital telecommunications. The main difference between two succeeding mobile telephone systems, 1G and 2G, is that the radio generation) was launched in Japan by NTT Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation , commonly known as NTT, is a telephone company that dominates the telecommunication market in Japan. Ranked the 44th in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nation-wide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone NMT is the first fully-automatic cellular phone system. It was specified by Nordic telecommunications administrations (PTTs) starting in 1970, and opened for service in 1981 as a response to the increasing congestion and heavy requirements of the manual mobile phone networks: ARP (150 MHz) in Finland and MTD (450 MHz) in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (NMT) system in Denmark Denmark (pronounced /ˈdɛnmɑrk/ ; Danish: Danmark, pronounced [ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊], archaic: [ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊]) is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders, Finland Finland (pronounced /ˈfɪnlənd/ ), officially the Republic of Finland Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info), is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden on the west, Norway on the north and Russia on the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland, Norway After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the and Sweden Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən, Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvær.jə]), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany and.[8]. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming. The first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago based Ameritech in 1983 using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. .

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.[9]

One of the newest 3G technologies to be implemented is High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.

Handset Features

A Nokia phone with box. A printed circuit board inside a mobile phone Printed circuit board inside a Motorola SLVR L7 Main articles: Mobile phone features and Smartphone

All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the last twenty years.

The common components found on all phones are:

Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony, as well as functions such as playing music and taking photos, and sometimes simple applications based on generic managed platforms such as Java ME or BREW. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications became known as smart phones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which added PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturisation and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today.

Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones; the Nokia Nseries of multimedia phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iPhone.

Other features that may be found on mobile phones include GPS navigation, music (MP3) and video (MP4) playback, RDS radio receiver, alarms, memo recording, personal digital assistant functions, ability to watch streaming video, video download, video calling, built-in cameras (1.0+ Mpx) and camcorders (video recording), with autofocus and flash, ringtones, games, PTT, memory card reader (SD), USB (2.0), dual line support, infrared, Bluetooth (2.0) and WiFi connectivity, instant messaging, Internet e-mail and browsing and serving as a wireless modem. Nokia and the University of Cambridge demonstrated a bendable cell phone called the Morph.[10]

Software and applications

A phone with touchscreen feature.

The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging. The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.

Other non-SMS data services used on mobile phones include mobile music, downloadable logos and pictures, gaming, gambling, adult entertainment and advertising. The first downloadable mobile content was sold to a mobile phone in Finland in 1998, when Radiolinja (now Elisa) introduced the downloadable ring tone service. In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service.

The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000. Mobile news services are expanding with many organisations providing "on-demand" news services by SMS. Some also provide "instant" news pushed out by SMS.

Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets.

Power supply

Mobile phone charging service in Uganda

Mobile phones generally obtain power from rechargeable batteries. There are a variety of ways used to charge cell phones, including USB, portable batteries, mains power (using an AC adapter), cigarette lighters (using an adapter), or a dynamo. In 2009, wireless charging became a reality, and the first wireless charger was released for consumer use.[11]

Standardization of Micro-USB connector for charging

Starting from 2010, many mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to use the Micro-USB connector for charging their phones.[12] The mobile phone manufacturers who have agreed to this standard include:

On 17 February 2009, the GSM Association announced[13] that they had agreed on a standard charger for mobile phones. The standard connector to be adopted by 17 manufacturers in the Open Mobile Terminal Platform including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung is to be the micro-USB connector (several media reports erroneously reported this as the mini-USB). The new chargers will be much more efficient than existing chargers. Having a standard charger for all phones, means that manufacturers will no longer have to supply a charger with every new phone.

In addition, on 22 October 2009 the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced that it had embraced micro-USB as the Universal Charger Solution its "energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution", and added: "Based on the Micro-USB interface, UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating — up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger."[14]

Charger efficiency

The world's five largest handset makers introduced a new rating system in November 2008 to help consumers more easily identify the most energy-efficient chargers

The majority of energy lost in a mobile phone charger is in its no load condition, when the mobile phone is not connected but the charger has been left plugged in and using power. To combat this in November 2008 the top five mobile phone manufacturers Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson and Motorola set up a star rating system to rate the efficiency of their chargers in the no-load condition. Starting at zero stars for >0.5 W and going up to the top five star rating for <0.03 W (30 mW) no load power.[15]

A number of semiconductor companies offering flyback controllers, such as Power Integrations and CamSemi, now claim that the five star standard can be achieved with use of their product.[16]

Battery

Formerly, the most common form of mobile phone batteries were nickel metal-hydride, as they have a low size and weight. lithium ion batteries are sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not have the voltage depression that nickel metal-hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone manufacturers have now switched to using lithium-polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-Ion, the main advantages of this being even lower weight and the possibility to make the battery a shape other than strict cuboid.[17] Mobile phone manufacturers have been experimenting with alternative power sources, including solar cells and Coca Cola.[18]

SIM card

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be and removed. (September 2009)
Main articles: Subscriber Identity Module and Removable User Identity Module Typical mobile phone SIM card

GSM mobile phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) used to identify a subscriber on mobile telephony devices (such as mobile phones and computers). The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device.

A SIM card contains its unique serial number, internationally unique number of the mobile user (IMSI), security authentication and ciphering information, temporary information related to the local network, a list of the services the user has access to and two passwords (PIN for usual use and PUK for unlocking).

SIM cards are available in three standard sizes. The first is the size of a credit card (85.60 mm × 53.98 mm x 0.76 mm). The newer, most popular miniature version has the same thickness but a length of 25 mm and a width of 15 mm, and has one of its corners truncated (chamfered) to prevent misinsertion. The newest incarnation known as the 3FF or micro-SIM has dimensions of 15 mm × 12 mm. Most cards of the two smaller sizes are supplied as a full-sized card with the smaller card held in place by a few plastic links; it can easily be broken off to be used in a device that uses the smaller SIM.

The first SIM card was made in 1991, with Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient selling the first 300 SIM cards to Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja.

Those cell phones that do not use a SIM Card have the data programmed in to their memory. This data is accessed by using a special digit sequence to access the "NAM" as in "Name" or number programming menu. From there, information can be added including: a new number for the phone, new Service Provider numbers, new emergency numbers, new Authentication Key or A-Key code, and a Preferred Roaming List or PRL. However, to prevent the phone being accidentally disabled or removed from the network, the Service Provider typically locks this data with a Master Subsidiary Lock (MSL). The MSL also locks the device to a particular carrier when it is sold as a loss leader.

The MSL applies to the SIM only so once the contract has been completed the MSL still applies to the SIM. The phone however, is also initially locked by the manufacturer into the Service Providers MSL. This lock may be disabled so that the phone can use other Service Providers SIM cards. Most phones purchased outside the US are unlocked phones because there are numerous Service Providers close to one another or have overlapping coverage. The cost to unlock a phone varies but is usually very cheap and is sometimes provided by independent phone vendors.

A similar module called a Removable User Identity Module is present in some CDMA networks, notably in China.

Mobile phones in society

Market share

Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 1997–2007

The world's largest individual mobile operator is China Mobile with over 500 million mobile phone subscribers[citation needed]. The world's largest mobile operator group by subscribers is UK based Vodafone[citation needed]. There are over 600 mobile operators and carriers in commercial production worldwide[citation needed]. Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators have at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009 (source wireless intelligence).

Source Date Nokia Samsung LG Electronics RIM Sony Ericsson Others References
IDC Q1/2010 36.6% 21.8% 9.2% 3.6% 3.6% 25.3% [19]
Gartner Q1/2010 35.0% 20.6% 8.6% 3.4% 3.1% 29.3% [20]

Other manufacturers include Apple Inc., Audiovox (now UTStarcom), CECT, HTC Corporation, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Panasonic, Palm, Matsushita, Pantech Wireless Inc., Philips, Qualcomm Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, T&A Alcatel, Huawei, Trium, Toshiba and Vidalco. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones.

Media

The mobile phone became a mass media channel in 1998 when the first ringtones were sold to mobile phones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon other media content appeared such as news, videogames, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. In 2006 the total value of mobile phone paid media content exceeded internet paid media content and was worth 31 Billion dollars (source Informa 2007). The value of music on phones was worth 9.3 Billion dollars in 2007 and gaming was worth over 5 billion dollars in 2007.[21]

The mobile phone is often called the Fourth Screen (if counting cinema, TV and PC screens as the first three) or Third Screen (counting only TV and PC screens).[weasel words] It is also called the Seventh of the Mass Media (with Print, Recordings, Cinema, Radio, TV and Internet the first six). Most early content for mobile tended to be copies of legacy media, such as the banner advertisement or the TV news highlight video clip. Recently unique content for mobile has been emerging, from the ringing tones and ringback tones in music to "mobisodes," video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.

The advent of media on the mobile phone has also produced the opportunity to identify and track Alpha Users or Hubs, the most influential members of any social community. AMF Ventures measured in 2007 the relative accuracy of three mass media, and found that audience measures on mobile were nine times more accurate than on the internet and 90 times more accurate than on TV.[original research?]

Uses

Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, including keeping in touch with family members, conducting business, and having access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one cell phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may also be used to take advantage of the benefits of different calling plans—a particular plan might provide cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming. A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones may be used to engage in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.[22]

Cell phone sharing is a phenomenon which exists around the world. It is prevalent in urban India, as families and groups of friends often share one or more mobiles among their members. Two types of sharing which exist are "conspicuous" and "stealthy" sharing. An example of conspicuous sharing takes place when someone calls the friend of the person they are trying to reach in hopes of being able to talk to that individual; stealthy sharing occurs when an individual uses another's cell phone without their knowledge. Phone sharing does not only take place because of its economic benefits, but also often due to familial customs and traditional gender roles.[23] An example of cell phone sharing occurs in Burkina Faso. There it is not uncommon for a village to only have access to one cell phone. This cell phone is typically owned by a person who is not natively from the village, such as a teacher or missionary. Although the cell phone is the sole property of one individual, it is the expectation that other members of the village are allowed to use the cell phone to make necessary calls. Although some may consider this a burden, it can actually be an opportunity to engage in reciprocal obligations. This type of cell phone sharing is an important for the small villages in Burkina Faso because it allows them to keep up with the expectations of the globalizing world.[24]

The mobile phone has also been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society, for example:

Privacy

Cell phones have numerous privacy issues associated with them, and are regularly used by governments to perform surveillance.

Law enforcement and intelligence services in the UK and the US possess technology to remotely activate the microphones in cell phones in order to listen to conversations that take place nearby the person who holds the phone.[29][30]

Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not), using a technique known multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.[31][32]

Restriction on usage

Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health

There exists a community which believes mobile phone use represents a long-term health risk, although this is currently disputed by the World Health Organization, with forthcoming mobile phone usage recommendations in 2010.[33] Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of cell phones especially by minors due to health risk uncertainties.[34] Groups of scientists, such as the US based group Bioinitiative, argue that because mobile phone use is recently introduced technology, long-term "proof" has been impossible and that use should be restricted, or monitored closely, while the technology is still new.

Use while driving

Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety

Mobile phone use while driving is common but controversial. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accident. Because of this, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore ban both hand-held and hands-free use of a mobile phone whilst many other countries –including the UK, France, and many US states– ban hand-held phone use only, allowing hands-free use.

Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones –often more like mobile computers in their available uses– it has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials in being able to tell one usage from another as drivers use their devices. This is more apparent in those countries who ban both hand-held and hands-free usage, rather those who have banned hand-held use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by visually looking at the driver. This can mean that drivers may be stopped for using their device illegally on a phone call, when in fact they were not; instead using the device for a legal purpose such as the phones' incorporated controls for car stereo or satnav usage – either as part of the cars' own device or directly on the mobile phone itself. Cases like these can often only be proved otherwise by a check of the mobile operators phone call records to see if a call was taking place during the journey concerned. Although in many countries the law enforcement official may have stopped the driver for a differing offence, for example, for lack of due care and attention in relation to their driving.

Schools

Some schools limit or restrict the use of mobile phones. Schools set restrictions on the use of mobile phones because of the use of cell phones for cheating on tests, harassment and bullying, causing threats to the schools security, distractions to the students and facilitating gossip and other social activity in school. Many mobile phones are banned in school locker room facilities, public restrooms and swimming pools due to the built-in cameras that most phones now feature.

A recently published study has reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety.[35]

Future evolution: Broadband Fourth generation (4G)

Main article: 4G

The recently released 4th generation, also known as Beyond 3G, aims to provide broadband wireless access with nominal data rates of 100 Mbit/s to fast moving devices, and 1 Gbit/s to stationary devices defined by the ITU-R[36] 4G systems may be based on the 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular standard, offering peak bit rates of 326.4 Mbit/s. It may perhaps also be based on WiMax or Flash-OFDM wireless metropolitan area network technologies that promise broadband wireless access with speeds that reaches 233 Mbit/s for mobile users. The radio interface in these systems is based on all-IP packet switching, MIMO diversity, multi-carrier modulation schemes, Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) and channel-dependent scheduling. A 4G system should be a complete replacement for current network infrastructure and is expected to be able to provide a comprehensive and secure IP solution where voice, data, and streamed multimedia can be given to users on a "Anytime, Anywhere" basis, and at much higher data rates than previous generations. Sprint in the US has claimed its WiMax network to be "4G network" which most cellular telecoms standardization experts dispute repeatedly around the world. Sprint's 4G is seen as a marketing gimmick as WiMax itself is part of the 3G air interface. The officially accepted, ITU ratified standards-based 4G networks are not expected to be commercially launched until 2011.

Comparison to similar systems

Car phone
A type of telephone permanently mounted in a vehicle, these often have more powerful transmitters, an external antenna and loudspeaker for hands free use. They usually connect to the same networks as regular mobile phones.
Cordless telephone (portable phone)
Cordless phones are telephones which use one or more radio handsets in place of a wired handset. The handsets connect wirelessly to a base station, which in turn connects to a conventional land line for calling. Unlike mobile phones, cordless phones use private base stations (belonging to the land-line subscriber), which are not shared.
Professional Mobile Radio
Advanced professional mobile radio systems can be very similar to mobile phone systems. Notably, the IDEN standard has been used as both a private trunked radio system as well as the technology for several large public providers. Similar attempts have even been made to use TETRA, the European digital PMR standard, to implement public mobile networks.
Radio phone
This is a term which covers radios which could connect into the telephone network. These phones may not be mobile; for example, they may require a mains power supply, or they may require the assistance of a human operator to set up a PSTN phone call.
Satellite phone
This type of phone communicates directly with an artificial satellite, which in turn relays calls to a base station or another satellite phone. A single satellite can provide coverage to a much greater area than terrestrial base stations. Since satellite phones are costly, their use is typically limited to people in remote areas where no mobile phone coverage exists, such as mountain climbers, mariners in the open sea, and news reporters at disaster sites.
IP Phone
This type of phone delivers or receives calls over internet, LAN or WAN networks using VoIP as opposed to traditional CDMA and GSM networks. In business, the majority of these IP Phones tend to be connected via wired Ethernet, however wireless varieties do exist. Several vendors have developed standalone WiFi phones. Additionally, some cellular mobile phones include the ability to place VoIP calls over cellular high speed data networks and/or wireless internet.[37]

See also

References

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Further reading

External links

Look up mobile phone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mobile phones
Mobile phones
General History · GSM · Features · OS · Services
Networking Network operators · Standard comparison · Frequencies · Mobile VoIP · SIM · WAP · XHTML-MP · Mobile phone signal Generations: 0G · 1G · 2G · 3G · 4G · 5G
Devices Manufacturers · Camera phone · Feature phone · Smartphone · Form factors
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Culture Charms · Comics · Dating · Novels · Ringtones · Phantom rings · Japanese mobile phone culture
Health and environment Electronic waste · Radiation and health · Blackberry thumb
Law Driving · Legality of recording by civilians · Photography and the law · Texting while driving
Mobile telephony standards
0G (radio telephones) MTS · MTA · MTB · MTC · IMTS · MTD · AMTS · OLT · Autoradiopuhelin
1G
AMPS family AMPS · TACS · ETACS
Other NMT · Hicap · Mobitex · DataTAC
2G
GSM/3GPP family GSM · CSD
3GPP2 family CdmaOne (IS-95)
AMPS family D-AMPS (IS-54 and IS-136)
Other CDPD · iDEN · PDC · PHS
2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G)
GSM/3GPP family HSCSD · GPRS · EDGE/EGPRS
3GPP2 family CDMA2000 1xRTT (IS-2000)
Other WiDEN
3G (IMT-2000)
3GPP family UMTS (UTRAN) · WCDMA-FDD · WCDMA-TDD · UTRA-TDD LCR (TD-SCDMA)
3GPP2 family CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (IS-856)
3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G)
3GPP family HSDPA · HSUPA · HSPA+ · LTE (E-UTRA)
3GPP2 family EV-DO Rev. A · EV-DO Rev. B
Other Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005) · Flash-OFDM · IEEE 802.20
4G (IMT-Advanced)
3GPP family LTE Advanced
WiMAX family IEEE 802.16m
5G
unconfirmed unconfirmed
Related articles History · Cellular network theory · List of standards · Comparison of standards · Channel access methods · Spectral efficiency comparison table · Cellular frequencies · GSM frequency bands · UMTS frequency bands · Mobile broadband

Categories: Mobile phones | Telephony | Embedded systems | Mobile telecommunications | Mobile telecommunication services | 1973 introductions | New media | Videotelephony

 

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