A stylised representation of a mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which behaves as a normal telephone whilst being able to move over a wide area (cf. cordless phone which acts as a telephone only within a limited range). Mobile phones allow connections to be made to the telephone network, normally by directly dialling the other party's number on an inbuilt keypad. Most current mobile phones use a combination of radio wave transmission and conventional telephone circuit switching, though packet switching is already in use for some parts of the mobile phone network, especially for services such as internet access and WAP. A telephone handset A touch-tone telephone dial Telephone The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device that transmits speech by means of electric signals. ... A portable phone or cordless phone is a wireless telephone which is associated with a fixed telephone landline (POTS) and can only be operated close to (typically less than 100 metres of) its base station, such as in and around the house. ... The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the worlds public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the worlds public IP-based packet-switched networks. ... Radio frequency, or RF, refers to that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in which electromagnetic waves can be generated by alternating current fed to an antenna. ... In communications, transmission is the act of transmitting electrical messages (and the associated phenonomena of radiant energy that pass through media). ... A telephone handset A touch-tone telephone dial Telephone The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device that transmits speech by means of electric signals. ... In telecommunication, the term circuit switching has the following meanings: 1. ... In computer networking and telecommunications, packet switching is a communications paradigm in which packets (messages or fragments of messages) are individually routed between nodes, with no previously established communication path. ... This article is about the Internet An internet is a more general term for any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking Graphic representation of the WWW information network structure around Wikipedia, as represented by hyperlinks The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly available worldwide... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Mobile phone manufacturers include Alcatel, Audiovox, Kyocera (formerly the handset division of Qualcomm), LG, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Philips, Samsung, Sagem, Sanyo, Siemens, SK Teletech and Sony Ericsson. This article or section should include material from Alcatel cellular telephones Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA) is a French company that makes telecommunications transmission equipment, including multiplexers and fiber optic terminal equipment and integrated circuits. ... Audiovox is an electronics company. ... Kyocera (京セラ, also known as Kyoto Ceramics) is a Japanese company based in Kyoto, Japan. ... Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is a wireless telecommunications research and development company based in San Diego, California. ... Categories: Corporation stubs | South Korea | Chaebols | Conglomerate ... Motorola started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. ... For the Finnish town, see Nokia. ... Panasonic is a brand used by Matsushita, a Japanese company, to market its products throughout the world. ... Company logo Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics), usually known as Philips, is one of the largest consumer electronics producers in the world. ... The Samsung Group is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. ... SAGEM is a major French company involved in defence electronics, consumer electronics and communication systems. ... Categories: Corporation stubs | Companies of Japan | Companies traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ... Siemens AG ( NYSE: SI) is the worlds largest electronics company. ... SK Teletech is a Korean company specialising in manufacturing mobile phone terminals. ... Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson) is a joint venture established in 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, to make mobile phones. ...

There are also specialist communication systems related to, but distinct from mobile phones, such as satellite phones and Professional Mobile Radio. A satellite phone or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting satellites. ... Professional Mobile Radio are radio systems such as TETRA which are designed for dedicated use by specific organisations. ...

Worldwide deployment

Mobile phones have a long and varied history that stretches back to the early 1970s. Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. Such networks can often be economic, even with a small customer base, as mobile network costs are mostly call volume related, while fixed-line telephony has a much higher subscriber related cost component. The history of mobile phones can be traced back to devices that are unrecognisable in todays GSM dominated world. ... A telephone handset A touch-tone telephone dial Telephone The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device that transmits speech by means of electric signals. ...

In most of Europe, wealthy parts of Asia, and Australasia, mobile phones are now virtually universal, with the majority of the adult, teenage, and even child population owning one. They are somewhat less common in the United States — while widely used, market penetration is lower than elsewhere in the developed world (around 66 percent of the U.S. population as of 2003). Reasons advanced for this include incomplete coverage, a mixture of incompatible technical standards, relatively high minimum monthly service charges (around $30), and the availability of relatively low-cost fixed-line networks (around $30 for unlimited local calling). Prepaid or pay as you go services, common elsewhere, are far less common in the U.S., and are much more expensive than comparable services in other countries. The shortage of telephone numbers in the NANP numbering system, and the lack of non-regional special telephone numbers for mobile services, means that the pricing system used elsewhere (calls cost more to make to a mobile, but are free to receive) cannot be used, and as a result users pay to receive calls, discouraging cellphone use. World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ... Australasia is the area that includes Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the many smaller islands in the vicinity, most of which are the eastern part of Indonesia. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... Prepaid telephone calls are a popular way of making telephone calls which allow the caller to control spend and not be tied into ongoing commitments with the telephone operator. ... Pay As You Go, often shortened to PAYG, is the general term for the concept of a prepay mobile phone. ... The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a system for three-digit area codes that direct telephone calls to particular regions on a public switched telephone network (PSTN), where they are further routed by the local network. ...

Mobile phone features

Mobile phones are designed to work on cellular networks and contain a standard set of services that allow phones of different types and in different countries to communicate with each other. A cellular radio network is a radio network made up of a number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by a fixed transmitter, normally known as a base station. ... GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. ...

Before the phone can be used, a subscription to a mobile phone operator (a.k.a. carrier) is required. For phones on GSM networks, the operator will issue a SIM card which contains the unique subscription and authentication parameters for that customer; alternatively, the carrier will put the customer's handset identifier into its subscriber database so that the handset can make calls on the network. Once the SIM card is inserted into the phone, services can be accessed. Mobile phones do not only support voice calls; they can also send and receive data and faxes (if a computer is attached), send short messages (or "text messages"; see SMS), access WAP services, and provide full Internet access using technologies such as GPRS. Mobile phones usually have a clock and a calculator and often one can play some games on them. A mobile phone operator (also wireless carrier) is a telephone company that provides phone services for mobile phone subscribers. ... GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... SIM re-directs here; for alternate uses see Sim (disambiguation) A SIM card taken from a GSM mobile phone A subscriber identity module (SIM) is a smartcard securely storing the key identifying a mobile subscriber. ... The GSM Core network is the heart of a GSM system, the most common mobile phone system in the world. ... Fax (short for facsimile or telefacsimile) is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone network. ... A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ... This is an article about the Wireless Application Protocol. ... This article is about the Internet An internet is a more general term for any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking Graphic representation of the WWW information network structure around Wikipedia, as represented by hyperlinks The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly available worldwide... General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. ... A clock (from the Latin cloca, bell) is an instrument for measuring time. ... Calculator - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... A play (noun) is a common literary form, usually consisting chiefly of dialog between characters, and usually intended for performance rather than reading. ... Blaufränkisch is a variety of wine grape that is used to produce dry, red wines which are typically low in tannin and may exhibit a pronounced spicy character. ...

Many mobile phones support 'auto-roaming', which permits the same phone to be used in multiple countries. For this to work, the operators of both countries must have a roaming agreement. A mobile phone operator (also wireless carrier) is a telephone company that provides phone services for mobile phone subscribers. ... Roaming is a general term in wireless telecommunications that refers to the extending of connectivity service in a network that is different than the network with which a station is registered. ...

Newer models also allow for sending and receiving pictures and have a built-in digital camera. This gives rise to some concern about privacy, in view of possible voyeurism, for example in swimming pools. For this reason, Saudi Arabia has entirely banned the sale of camera phones (although the country allows pilgrims on the Hajj to bring in camera phones); South Korea has ordered manufacturers to ensure that all new handsets emit a beep whenever a picture is taken. A digital camera, as opposed to a film or video camera, uses an electronic sensor to transform images (or video) into electronic data. ... Privacy is the ability of a person to control the availability of information about and exposure of him- or herself. ... Voyeurism is a practice in which an individual derives sexual pleasure from observing other people. ... 50 meter indoor swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, or wading pool is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for recreational or competitive swimming, or for other bathing activities that do not involve swimming, i. ... The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a country on the Arabian Peninsula. ... A camera phone in use A camera phone is a cellphone which has a camera built in. ... The Hajj or Haj is the Pilgrimage to Mecca (or, Makkah) and is the fifth of the Five Pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. ... South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK; Korean: Daehan Minguk (Hangul: 대한 민국; Hanja: 大韓民國)), is a country in East Asia, covering the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. ...

GPS receivers are starting to appear in cell phones, primarily to aid in dispatching emergency responders. Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... Emergency services are services that deal with emergencies and other aspects of Public Safety. ...

Newer models have included many features aimed toward personalisation, such as user defined and downloadable ring tones and logos, and interchangeable covers, which have helped in the uptake by the teenage market. Usually one can choose between a ring tone, a vibrating alert, or a combination of both. A ring tone is the sound made by a telephone when ringing. ... An operator logo is a logo which appears on the status screen of a mobile phone. ... A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... A vibrating alert is on communications devices to notify the user of an incoming connection. ...

Multi-mode mobile phones

A multi-mode (a.k.a. dual, tri or quad band) mobile phone is a phone which is designed to work on more than one GSM radio frequency. The multi-mode case occurs mostly in GSM which originated in the 900 MHz band, but expanded to other bands including 1800 and 1900Mhz bands. Some multi-mode phones can operate on analog networks as well (e.g. dual band, tri-mode: AMPS 800 / CDMA 800 / CDMA 1900). A dual is a pair – a grouping of two. ... Try is a two- or three-player cooperative card game in which players attempt to achieve at least 65 net points in one suit. ... Quad is a latin prefix meaning four. ... GSM frequency ranges are the radio spectrum frequencies that the GSM system for mobile phones operate under. ... Advanced Mobile Phone System or AMPS is the analog mobile phone system standard, introduced in the Americas during the early 1980s. ... General Information Generically (as a multiplexing scheme), code division multiple access (CDMA) is any use of any form of spread spectrum by multiple transmitters to send to the same receiver on the same frequency channel at the same time without harmful interference. ...

Multi mode phones have been valuable to enable roaming but are now becoming most important in allowing the introduction of WCDMA without customers having to give up the wide coverage of GSM. Almost every single true 3G phone sold is actually a WCDMA/GSM dual-mode mobile. This is also true of 2.75G phones such as those based on CDMA-2000 or EDGE. W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommuncation air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the standard), is a 3G mobile communications standard allied with the GSM standard. ... GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation mobile telephone technology. ... A 2G mobile phone is a circuit switched digital mobile phone. ...

The special challenge involved in producing a multi-mode mobile is in finding ways to share the components between the different standards. Obviously, the phone keypad and display should be shared, otherwise it would be hard to treat as one phone. Beyond that, though, there are challenges at each level of integration. How difficult these challenges are depends on the differences between systems. The different variants of the GSM system have only different frequencies and so aren't even considered true multi-mode phones but rather are called multi-band phones. When talking about IS-95/GSM multi-mode phones, for example, or AMPS/IS-95 phones, the base band processing is very different from system to system. This leads to real difficulties in component integration and so to larger phones.

An interesting special case of multi-mode phones is the WCDMA/GSM phone. The radio interfaces are very different from each other, but mobile to core network messaging has strong similarities, meaning that software sharing is quite easy. Probably more importantly, the WCDMA air interface has been designed with GSM compatibility in mind. It has a special mode of operation, known as punctured mode, in which, instead of transmitting continuously, the mobile is able to stop sending for a short period and try searching for GSM carriers in the area. This mode allows for safe inter-frequency handovers with channel measurements which can only be approximated using "pilot signals" in other CDMA based systems. General Information Generically (as a multiplexing scheme), code division multiple access (CDMA) is any use of any form of spread spectrum by multiple transmitters to send to the same receiver on the same frequency channel at the same time without harmful interference. ...

A final interesting case is that of mobiles covering DS-WCDMA and MC-CDMA the 3G variant of CDMA-2000. Initially, the chip rate of these phones was incompatible. As part of the negotiations related to patents, it was agreed to use compatible chip rates. This should mean that, despite the fact that the air and system interfaces are quite different, even on a philosophical level, much of the hardware for each system inside a phone should be common with differences being mostly confined to software. W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommuncation air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the standard), is a 3G mobile communications standard allied with the GSM standard. ... CDMA2000 is a 3G mobile telecommunications standard, one of the approved radio interfaces for the ITUs IMT-2000 standard, and a successor to 2G CDMA (IS-95, branded cdmaOne). ... 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation mobile telephone technology. ... IS-2000 is the second generation of CDMA digital cellular, an extension of IS-95. ... Pseudorandom noise is a signal similar to noise which satisfies one or more of the standard tests for statistical randomness. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ...

Health controversy

Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health Mobile phone radiation and health concerns have been raised following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world (as of December 2004, there were more than 800 million users worldwide). ...

As with many new technologies, concerns have arisen about the effects on health from using a mobile telephone. There is little scientific evidence for an increase in certain types of rare tumors in long-time, heavy users. More recently a pan-European study provided significant evidence of DNA damage under certain conditions. So far, however, the World Health Organization Task Force on EMF effects on health has no definitive conclusion on the veracity of these allegations. (see also Electromagnetic radiation hazard). It is generally thought, however, that RF is incapable of producing any more than heating effects, as it is considered non-ionizing radiation, i.e. that it lacks the energy to disrupt molecular bonds such as occurs in genetic mutations. Health can be defined negatively, as the absence of illness, functionally as the ability to cope with everyday activities, or positively, as fitness and well-being (Blaxter 1990). ... Tumor (American English) or tumour (British English) originally means swelling, and is sometimes still used with that meaning. ... This article is about the continent. ... DNA replication Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid which is capable of carrying genetic instructions for the biological development of all cellular forms of life and many viruses. ... For other meanings of the acronym WHO, see WHO (disambiguation) WHO flag Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations, acting as a coordinating authority on international public health. ... Electromagnetic radiation can be classified into ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, based on whether it is capable of ionizing atoms and breaking chemical bonds. ...

Another controversial but perhaps more lethal health concern is the correlation with automobile accidents. Some countries, provinces and states are considering banning hand mobile phone use whilst driving or require that a "hands-free" system be used. Many European countries and New York already require a "hands-free" device for mobile phone use in vehicles. A car accident in Yate, near Bristol, England, in July 2004. ... Handsfree is the name of equipment to use a mobile phone without hands when talking. ...

Security concerns

Earlier mobile phones were fairly simple and the major security concern was "cloning", a variant of identity theft which is much more difficult with newer, digital systems. Many users fail to realize that a cell phone is literally a basic walkie-talkie style radio, with some computers helping along the way. Radio scanners dating to about 1996 or '97 typically can receive the old analog cell phones as easy as one listen to an FM radio. However, over the years technology has made cell phones in the gigahertz range, well above most conventional scanners. In addition, many (most) cell phones on the market today are backed by many digital type encryption systems. There are also new means of digital communications, such as text messaging and e-mail. As of 2004, even basic phones can send and receive text messages which makes them vulnerable to attack by worms and viruses. Advanced phones capable of e-mail can be susceptible to viruses that can multiply by sending messages through a phone's address book. Of more important concern, a virus may allow unauthorized users to access a phone to find passwords or corporate data stored on the device. Moreover, they can be used to commandeer the phone to make calls or send messages at the owner's expense. Unlike computers that are restricted to only a few widespread operating systems, cellular phones use a variety of systems that require separate programs to be designed in order to disable each one. While reducing overall compatibilty from an application design standpoint, this has the beneficial effect of making it harder to design a mass attack. However, the rise of cellular phone operating system programming platforms shared by many manufacturers such as Java, Microsoft operating systems, Linux or Symbian OS, may in the future change this status quo. Identity theft is the deliberate assumption of another persons identity, usually to gain access to their credit or frame them for some crime. ... A walkie-talkie is a portable, bi-directional radio transceiver, first developed for military use. ... FM radio is a broadcast technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity broadcast radio sound. ... A gigahertz is a billion hertz or a thousand megahertz, a measure of frequency. ... This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. ... A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ... A worm is any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied invertebrate animals. ... A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... For information on the game Password, see Password (game). ... A datum is a statement accepted at face value (a given). Data is the plural of datum. ... The tower of a personal computer (specifically a Power Mac G5). ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed primarily by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ... This article is about Linux-based operating systems, GNU/Linux, and related topics. ... Symbian OS is an operating system with associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, produced by Symbian. ...

Bluetooth is a wireless communication feature now found in many higher-end phones, and the virus Cabir hijacked this function, sending Bluetooth phones on a search-and-destroy mission to infect other Bluetooth phones. In early November 2004, several web sites began offering a specific piece of software promising ringtones and screensavers for certain phones. Those who downloaded the software found that it turned each icon on the phone's screen into a skull-and-crossbones and disabled their phones, so they could no longer send or receive text messages or access contact lists or calendars. The virus has since been dubbed "Skulls" by security experts. The Commwarrior.A virus was identified in March 2005, and it attempts to replicate itself through MMS to others on the phone's contact list. Like Cabir, Commwarrior.A also tries to communicate via Bluetooth wireless connections with other devices, which can eventually lead to draining the battery. The virus requires user intervention for propagation however. Bluetooth telephones are also subject to bluejacking, which is the generally benign transmission of messages from anonymous Bluetooth users. In 2004, rumors spread of using Bluetooth to arrange casual sex hookups; this activity, widely publicized in both print and online media as toothing, was revealed to be a hoax in 2005. This article is about the Bluetooth wireless specification. ... Wireless is an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... Cabir (also known as EPOC.cabir and Symbian/Cabir) is the name of a computer worm developed in 2004 that is designed to infect mobile phones running Symbian OS. It is believed to be the first computer worm that can infect mobile phones. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... A ring tone is the sound made by a telephone when ringing. ... A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. ... The Savior Not Made By Hands (1410s, by Andrei Rublev) An icon (from Greek εικων, eikon, image) is an artistic visual representation or symbol of anything considered holy and divine, such as God, saints or deities. ... A calendar is a system for assigning calendar dates to days. ... Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) is the logical evolution of the Short Message Service SMS, a text-only messaging system for mobile networks. ... Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers. ... This article is not about teething, the growth of teeth by infants. ...

Mobile phone culture

In less than twenty years, mobile telephones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used by businesses to a pervasive low-cost personal item. In many affluent countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. Mobile phone penetration is increasing around the world; this is particularly true of developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure.

With high levels of mobile telephone penetration, a mobile phone culture has evolved, where the mobile phone becomes a key social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone addressbook to keep in touch with their friends. Many people keep in touch using SMS, and a whole culture of "texting" has developed from this. A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ...

The mobile phone itself has become a totemic and fashion object, with users decorating, customizing, and accessorizing their mobile phones to reflect their personality. This article is about the Native American term. ... A fashion consists of a current (constantly changing) trend, favoured for frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons. ...

The capabilities of mobile phones are now being expanded further, to become smartphones which can adopt the roles of Internet browser, game console, personal music player and personal digital assistant. A smartphone is generally considered any handheld device that integrates personal information management and mobile phone capabilities in the same device. ... A web browser is a software package that enables a user to display and interact with documents hosted by web servers. ... The Nintendo GameCube is an example of a popular video game console. ... Palm IIIxe PDA Personal digital assistants (PDAs or palmtops) are handheld devices that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. ...

Mobile etiquette has become an important issue with mobiles ringing at funerals, weddings, movies and plays. Users often speak at increased volume, with the effect of nearby people hearing personal conversations that they don't necessarily want to hear.

Future prospects

There is a great deal of active research and development into mobile phone technology that is currently underway. Some of the improvements that are being worked on are:

• One difficulty in adapting mobile phones to new uses is form factor. For example, ebooks may well become a distinct device, because of conflicting form-factor requirements — ebooks require large screens, while phones need to be smaller. However, this may be solved using folding e-paper or built-in projectors.

• One function that will be useful in phones is translation function. Currently it is only available in stand-alone devices, such as Ectaco translators.

• mobile phones will include various speech technologies as they are being developed. Many phones already have rudimentary speech recognition in a form of voice dialling. Of particular interest will be real-time voice translation (that must include speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis). However, more natural speech recognition and translation in these devices requires a drastic improvement in the state of technology: the phone's processor must be faster by several orders of magnitude with the phone requiring far more internal memory, or new ways of processing speech data must be found. Natural language processing requires inordinately powerful hardware.

• developments in miniaturised hard disks to solve the storage space issue, therefore opening a window for phones to become portable music libraries and players similar to the iPod.

• the emergence of integration capabilities with other unlicensed access technologies such as a WiMAX and WLAN, as well as allowing handover between traditional operator networks supporting GSM, CDMA and UMTS to unlicensed mobile networks.

• further improvements in battery life will be required. Colour screens and additional functions put increasing demands on the device's power source, and battery developments may not proceed sufficiently fast to compensate. However, different display technologies, such as OLED displays, e-paper or retinal displays, smarter communication hardware (directional antennae, multi-mode and peer-to-peer phones) may reduce power requirements, while new power technologies such as fuel cells may provide better energy capacity.

• Speculative improvements in the future may be inspired by an English team led by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau who in 2002, developed an implant designed to be inserted into a tooth during dental surgery. This device consists of a radio receiver and transducer, which transmits the sound via bone conduction through the jawbone into the ear. Sound is transmitted via radio waves from another device (ostensibly a mobile phone) and received by the implant. The implant is currently powered externally, given that no current power source is small enough to fit inside the tooth with it. In addition, the implant was only designed to receive signals, not transmit them. Directly tapping into the inner ear or the auditory nerve is already technologically feasible and will become practical as surgical methods advance.

Form factor refers to the linear dimensions and configuration of a device as distinguished from other measures of size (for example Gigabytes; a measure of storage size): in computing, form factor is used to describe the size and format of PC motherboards (see AT, ATX, BTX), but also of hard... An ebook is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. ... Electronic paper, or e-paper, is a technology that allows the text on a piece of paper to be re-written. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language—the source text—and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language—the target text, also called the translation. ... Speech recognition technologies allow computers equipped with a source of sound input, such as a microphone, to interpret human speech, e. ... Speech recognition technologies allow computers equipped with a source of sound input, such as a microphone, to interpret human speech, e. ... Machine translation (MT) is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language - the source text - and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language - the target text - without human intervention. ... Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ... An order of magnitude is the class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio to the class preceding it. ... The terms storage ( U.K.) or memory ( U.S.) refer to the parts of a digital computer that retain physical state ( data) for some interval of time, possibly even after electrical power to the computer is turned off. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... A fourth-generation iPod with earphones. ... An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a light-emitting diode (LED) made of semiconducting organic polymers. ... A directional antenna is an antenna which transmits or receives maximum power in a particular direction. ... A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i. ... A transducer is a device that converts one type of energy to another, or responds to a physical parameter. ... Bone conduction is the conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull. ... For an alternative meaning, see ear (botany). ... The auditory nerve is the nerve along which the sensory cells (the hair cells) of the inner ear transmit information to the brain. ...

Terminology

Mobile phone terms

Cell phone or cellular telephone 

Term used currently in the United States (and in other countries as well during the 1980s) to refer to most mobile phones. It technically applies specifically to mobile phones which use a cellular network. In developing mobile phone technology, American electrical engineers saw the main technical problem as achieving a smooth handoff from one radio antenna to the next. After they gave the name "cell" to the zone covered by each antenna, it was a natural choice for them to apply the term "cellular" to both the technology and the phones that ran on it.

Clamshell 

An unfolding oval shape resembling a shell

Handy 

pronounced "Hendi", this is a pseudo-anglicism, derived from the term Handy Talkie for a handheld military radio, that is used in Austria and Germany for a mobile phone (rare alternative spelling: Händi). Similarly another pseudo-anglic term Hand phone is used in South Korea.

Mobile phone 

A term covering cellular phones, satellite phones and any phones giving wide ranging mobility.

Mobile 

Short form of the above, a term in everyday usage in some English speaking countries such as the UK.

Satellite phone 

A mobile phone which communicates with a satellite rather than a land-based network.

Wireless phone 

This is a term which is generally used to refer to a mobile phone although it could legitimately cover almost any phone which does not use a wire.

3G phone 

A mobile phone which uses a 3G network.

A cellular radio network is a radio network made up of a number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by a fixed transmitter, normally known as a base station. ... In design, clamshell is a form resembling the shell of a clam, with the ability to open up in the same way. ... Amongst other things, a shell is: An animal shell, the hard, rigid outer covering of an animal such as a mollusk or gastropod or tortoise or turtle. ... Pseudo-Anglicisms are words in languages other than English which were borrowed from English but are used in a way native English speakers would not readily recognize or understand. ... The Republic of Austria ( German: Republik Österreich) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. ... A satellite phone or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting satellites. ... 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation mobile telephone technology. ...

Related systems which are not mobile phones

Cordless Phone (Portable Phone) 

Cordless phones are standard telephones with radio handsets. Unlike mobile phones, cordless phones use private base stations that are not shared between subscribers. The base station is connected to a land-line.

Radio Phone 

This is an term which covers radios which could connect into the telephone network. These phones may not be mobile, e.g. they may require a mains power supply.

Professional Mobile Radio 

Professional mobile radio systems are very similar to mobile phone systems and attempts have even been made to use TETRA, the international digital PMR standard, to implement public mobile networks, but normally PMR systems are sufficiently separate from the phone network to not really be considered phones but rather radios.

A portable phone or cordless phone is a wireless telephone which is associated with a fixed telephone landline (POTS) and can only be operated close to (typically less than 100 metres of) its base station, such as in and around the house. ... Professional Mobile Radio are radio systems such as TETRA which are designed for dedicated use by specific organisations. ... For use as a prefix, see Tetra- For the encrypted radio network standard TETRA, see Terrestrial Trunked Radio. ...

Terms in other languages

Mobile phones are known as:

• cell phones or cells in Canada, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa, USA
• celulares (singular form celular) in Brazil, Chile, Mexico,Puerto Rico and other spanish speaking countries as the spanish word for Cellular
• Farsími (Official for all mobile phone systems), Gemsi (means young sheep, referring to GSM), GSM-sími (For phones using the GSM System), or NMT-sími (For phones using the Nordic Mobile Telephone-system) in Iceland
• Fón Póca So-Gluiste, literally meaning "phone-pocket-that-moves" in Irish
• GSMs in Belgium.
• hand phones in many Asian countries
• Handys in Germany and Austria
• jawwal (mobile) in Saudi Arabia
• Keitai (携帯,portable, short for keitai denwa,携帯電話, portable telephone) in Japan; semantic development is very close to words like mobile
• khelyawi (cellular) in Lebanon
• komórki (singular form komórka) or telefon komórkowy, meaning cells/cellular phone in Poland
• matkapuhelimet (literally travel-phones, singular form matkapuhelin) or kännykät (singular form kännykkä, very close in meaning to the German Handy) in Finland; actually trademarked by Nokia in 1987 but fallen into generic use and would probably not be upheld any more if contested in a court of law
• Meu Teu in Thailand
• mobieltjes in the Netherlands
• mòbils in Andorra
• mobiles in Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, UK
• mobilní telefony or simply mobily in Czech Republic
• mobilny telefon (= mobile phone), or mobilnik for short. Older names are sotovy telefon (= cell phone) and trubka (= handset) in Russia
• mobiltelefon or a mobil in Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Sweden (sometimes nalle in Sweden, meaning teddy bear translated to English, originally referring to the term yuppie-nalle since until the late 1980s only rich yuppies could afford them and they showed them off in a way that looked as they where carrying a yuppie teddy bear, nowadays only nalle is used representing that people always carry them around and feel insecure if they misplace them, like a child missing their teddy bear)
• /pelefon/ (literally wonder-phone), as derived from the first such operator, or /najad/ (mobile) in Israel
• móviles (móvil) in Spanish and mòbils (mòbil) in Catalan in Spain
• Natel in Switzerland
• Ponsel (telepon selular, cellular phones), or HP (shortened from Hand Phone, but pronounced ha-pe, not like HP in English) in Indonesia
• poŝtelefonoj ("pocket phones", pronounced poshtelefonoy) by users of Esperanto
• portable (literally portable) in France
• sau kei (hand machine) in Hong Kong*
• shou ji (手機 hand machine * Same term for Hong Kong) or xing dong dian hwa (行動電話 mobile phone) in Mainland China and Taiwan
• Telefonino (meaning small phone), or Cellulare (short form for Telefono cellulare) in Italy
• /telefon selolari/(cellular phone) in formal hebrew
• telefon mobil (pl. telefoane mobile), but the short form is more common: mobil (mobile) in Romania
• telemóveis (singular form telemóvel) in Portugal
• telefoonka gacanta (literally "hand's phone") in Somalia
• zhiesem, жиесем in Bulgarian (literally "GSM") or mobilen telefon, мобилен телефон in Bulgarian (literally "mobile phone") in Bulgaria

Canada is a sovereign state in northern North America, the northern-most country in the world, and the second largest in total area. ... The Republic of the Philippines is a country of South East Asia, located in the western Pacific Ocean some 1,210 km (750 mi) from mainland Asia. ... The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (پاکستان in Urdu), or Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia. ... The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world. ... The Republic of Chile is a country located on the southwestern coast of South America. ... The United Mexican States or Mexico ( Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México; regarding the use of the variant spelling Méjico, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered to the north by the United States of America, to the southeast by Guatemala and Belize, to... This article is about Puerto Rico, the territory of the United States. ... NMT may mean: Nordic Mobile Telephone New Mexico Tech non-metallic conduit boots with a non-metallic toe Northwest Marine Technology NMT Medical NMT Corporation Toronto New Media Trainers Alliance NMT International Shipping Network Management Technologies NMT Group National Mobile Television Nuremberg Military Tribunals National Meningitis Trust This is a... Iceland (disambiguation). ... Irish can refer to multiple things: Things relating to Ireland or its culture, see also List of Ireland-related topics. ... The term Asian can refer to something or someone from Asia. ... The Republic of Austria ( German: Republik Österreich) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. ... The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a country on the Arabian Peninsula. ... Official language Japanese Capital Tokyo Largest City Tokyo Emperor Akihito Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 60th 377,835 km² 0. ... In general, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... The Lebanese Republic or Lebanon is a country in Southwest Asia, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Republic of Poland, a democratic country with a population of 38,626,349 and area of 312,685 km², is located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and... The Kingdom of Thailand is a country in southeast Asia, bordering Laos and Cambodia to the east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to the south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to the west. ... National motto: Virtus Unita Fortior (Latin: Virtue united is stronger) Official language: Catalan. ... For alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). ... National motto: Truth prevails ( Czech: Pravda vítězí) Official language Czech Capital Praha ( Prague) President Václav Klaus Prime Minister Stanislav Gross Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 114th 78,866 km² 2% Population  - Total ( 2003)  - Density Ranked 76th 10. ... Denmark (disambiguation). ... The Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság) or Hungary (Magyarország) is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. ... The Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia, with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. ... Yuppie is short for Young Urban Professional. It is used to describe a demographic profile: people, usually between their late twenties and early thirties, generally with graduate degrees. ... Categories: Stub | Companies of Israel ... The State of Israel (Hebrew: מדינת ישראל, translit. ... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ... The Republic of Indonesia is located in the Malay Archipelago, the worlds largest archipelago, between Indochina and Australia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. ... Esperanto flag Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. ... Hong Kong (香港; Cantonese IPA: ; Jyutping: hoeng1 gong2; Yale: heūng góng; pinyin: Xiānggǎng; Wade-Giles: Hsiang-kang) is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the Peoples Republic of China. ... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ... For the political entity commonly known as Taiwan, see Republic of China. ... The Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. ... Romania (formerly spelled Rumania or Roumania; Romanian: România) is a country in southeastern Europe. ... Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال, As-Sumal), formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is an African country that exists solely in a de jure capacity. ... The Republic of Bulgaria is a republic in the southeast of Europe. ...

See also

• Mobile phone generations: 0G, 1G, 2G, 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G and 4G
• Smartphone
• Japanese cell phone culture
• Largest mobile phone companies
• List of mobile phones running Linux
• Satellite, Iridium, Inmarsat
• Location based service
• MIDlet
• Push to talk
• Over The Air Programmable
• Mobile Payment Services Association
• Mobile phones on aircraft
• Fixed-line telephony
• Telecommunication
• Connectivity
• Messages: SMS, MMS
• Wireless: Bluetooth, bluechat, bluedating, wifi
• USB
• Mobile power: battery, car lighter, solar energy
• Marine and mobile radio telephony
• Dropped call
• Mobile Browser

-1... 1G (or 1-G) is short for first-generation wireless telephone technology, cellphones. ... 2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. ... 2. ... A 2G mobile phone is a circuit switched digital mobile phone. ... 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation mobile telephone technology. ... This article describes the wireless access technology 4G. For the 4G IATA code see Shenzhen Airlines 4G (or 4-G) is short for fourth-generation the successor of 3G and is a wireless access technology. ... A smartphone is generally considered any handheld device that integrates personal information management and mobile phone capabilities in the same device. ... Japanese mobile phone with colour screen In Japan, mobile phones have become ubiquitous and much of the population is equipped with such a mobile telephone including enhancements such as video and camera capabilities. ... World These are the worlds largest mobile phone companies, by number of subscribers. ... Embedded Linux refers to the use of GNU/Linux operating system in embedded systems such as cell phones, PDAs, media player handsets, and other consumer electronics devices. ... For other uses, please see Satellite (disambiguation) A satellite is an object that orbits another object (known as its primary). ... The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. ... INMARSAT, is an international telecommunications company founded in 1979. ... A location-based service (or LBS) in a cellular telephone network is a service provided to the subscriber based on her current geographic location. ... A MIDlet is a Java program for embedded devices, more specifically the J2ME virtual machine. ... Push to talk, commonly abbreviated as PTT, is a method of conversing on half-duplex communication lines, by pushing a button in order to send, allowing voice communication to be transmitted from you, and releasing to let voice communication be received. ... SimPay is a consortium to realise Mobile Payment. ... The use of mobile phones on aircraft is generally forbidden during flight. ... A telephone handset A touch-tone telephone dial Telephone The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device that transmits speech by means of electric signals. ... Telecommunication is the extension of communication over a distance. ... Connectivity is the property of a device such as a PC, peripheral, PDA, mobile phone, robot, home appliance, or car that enables it to be connected, generally to a PC or another device without the need of a PC - autonomously. ... A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ... Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) is the logical evolution of the Short Message Service SMS, a text-only messaging system for mobile networks. ... Wireless is an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... This article is about the Bluetooth wireless specification. ... Bluechat is a direct text chat between two or more users, where every one utilizes a bluetooth device (i. ... Wireless dating or Bluedating (from Bluetooth) is a form of dating which makes use of mobile phone and bluetooth technologies. ... Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for Wireless Fidelity, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802. ... Note: USB may also mean upper sideband in radio. ... The concept of power occurs in multiple areas. ... Four double-A batteries In science and technology, a battery is a device that stores energy and makes it available in an electrical form. ... See: Lighter (fire starter) - a handheld fire starter Lighter (barge) - a type of barge Lighter than air This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Solar power describes a number of methods of harnessing energy from the light of the sun. ... The Marine Radiotelephone Service or HF ship-to-shore operates on short wave radio frequencies, using single-sideband modulation. ... Dropped call is the common term for a wireless mobile phone call that is terminated unexpectedly as a result of technical reasons. ... A Mobile Browser is an web browser which runs on a mobile phone. ...

External links

• Cell Phone Glossary (http://www.mobiledia.com/glossary/index.html)
• Mobile Phone Reviews (http://www.zfone.com/)
• USA Mobile and Cell Phone FAQs. (http://www.hellomobile.com/cell-phones-wireless-101.htm)
• Cell Phone Safety (http://www.cellphonesafetyguide.com)
• How Cell Phones Work (http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm)
• Linux and mobile phones (http://tuxmobil.org/phones_linux.html)
• Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (http://www.mobileprinting.org/home) (MIPC).
• Wikipedia on WAP enabled cellular phones (http://www.en.wapedia.org)
• Wireless Local Number Portability - WLNP (http://www.hellomobile.com/number-portability.htm)
• Mobile Banking (http://www.tutorial-reports.com/mobile/mobile-banking)
• repair and upgrade instructions for mobile (cell) phones (http://repair4mobilephone.org/)
• GSM Helpdesk Netherlands (information and support) (http://www.gsmhelpdesk.nl/)