Mobile phone
A mobile phone or cellular telephone (commonly, "mobile phone" or "cell phone") is a long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception are satellite phones).
History
Today's widespread use of mobile phones was made possible by the introduction of hexagonal cells for mobile phone base stations, invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and was further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1983. 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.
In 1945, the 0G generation of mobile telephones were introduced. 0G mobile telephones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not officially categorized as mobile phones, since they did not support the automatic change of channel frequency in the middle of a call, when the user moved from one cell (base station coverage area) to another cell, a feature called "handover".
 In 1970 Amos Joel of Bell Labs invented the "call handoff" feature, which allowed a mobile-phone user to travel through several cells during the same conversation. Martin Cooper of Motorola is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973. At the time he made his call, Cooper was working as Motorola's General Manager of its Communications Division.
Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid-1980s (the 1G generation). The first fully automatic mobile phone system was the 1981 Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system. Until the early 1990s, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were usually permanently installed in vehicles as car phones. With the advance of miniaturization and smaller digital components, mobile phones got smaller and lighter.
Manufacturers
Nokia Corporation is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, with a global market share of approximately 36% in Q1 of 2007.[1] Other mobile phone manufacturers include Audiovox (now UT Starcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, Kyocera, 3G, LG Mobile, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel, Philips, Research In Motion, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, T&A Alcatel,Toshiba, Verizon, and soon to be Apple Inc.. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones, such as Professional Mobile Radio.
Subscriptions
Several countries, including the UK, now have more mobile phones than people.[2] There will be over four hundred million cell phone users in China by 2015. Luxembourg has the highest mobile phone penetration rate in the world, at 164% in December 2001. In Hong Kong the penetration rate reached 117% of population in September 2004.[3] The total number of mobile phone subscribers in the world was estimated at 2.14 billion in 2005.[4] Around 80% of the world's population has mobile phone coverage as of 2006. This figure is expected to increase to 90% by the year 2010.[5]
At present, Africa has the largest growth rate of cellular subscribers in the world.[6] African markets are expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets.[7] The availability of Prepaid or 'pay as you go' services, where the subscriber does not have to commit to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth on a monumental scale, not only in Africa but on other continents as well.
On a numerical basis, India is the largest growth market, adding about 6 million cell phones every month. [8] With 156.31 million cell phones, market penetration in the country is still low at 17.45%, and the country expects to reach 500 million subscribers by end of 2010.
All European nations and most Asian and African nations have adopted GSM. In other countries, such as the United States, Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea, legislation does not require any particular standard, and GSM co-exists with other standards, such as CDMA and iDEN.
Some cellular systems are 'pay as you go', which means time can be purchased and added to a phone unit in a wide variety of shops and even ATMs, so there is no monthly bill. Many are "pay monthly", which means a bill is issued every month for the amount of calls and text messages made
Culture and customs
In fewer than twenty years, mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used primarily by the business elite, to a pervasive low-cost personal item. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. In the United States, 50% of children own mobile phones.[9] It is not uncommon for young adults to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. In some developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure, the mobile phone has become widespread.
With high levels of mobile telephone penetration , a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone becomes a key social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone address book to keep in touch with their friends. Many people keep in touch using SMS, and a whole culture of "texting" has developed from this. The commercial market in SMSs is growing. Many phones even offer Instant Messenger services to increase the simplicity and ease of texting on phones. Mobile phones in Japan, offering Internet capabilities such as NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, offer text messaging via standard e-mail.
The mobile phone itself has also become a totemic and fashion object, with users decorating, customizing, and accessorizing their mobile phones to reflect their personality. This has emerged as its own industry. The sale of commercial ringtones exceeded $2.5 billion in 20
Use in disaster response
In Japan, mobile phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones or the small detonator of flare in the battery of every cellphone; an interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress
Use by drivers
Mobile-phone use while driving is common but controversial. While few jurisdictions have banned motorists from using mobile phones while driving outright, some have banned or restricted drivers from using hand-held mobile phones while exempting phones operated in a hands-free fashion. It is generally agreed that using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is a distraction that brings risk of road traffic accidents. However, some studies have found similarly elevated accident rates among drivers using hands-free phones, suggesting that the distraction of a telephone conversation itself is the main safety problem.
Use of handheld mobile phones by drivers is illegal in many European countries and a number of Asian and South American countries and Australia. Use of hands-free mobiles is permitted, although the Australian state of New South Wales has banned hands free for learner and first year provisional license holders. However some countries like Japan ban mobile phone use while driving completely. Similar laws exist in six U.S. states with legislation proposed in 40 other states. The United States Department of Defense has outlawed the use of all mobile phones while driving on any DOD installation, unless a hands-free device is used.
Applications
Mobile news services are expanding with many organizations providing "on-demand" news services by SMS. Some also provide "instant" news pushed out by SMS. Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo[13] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.
Power
Mobile phones can obtain power generally from batteries. Batteries can be recharged from mains power, a USB port or a cigarette lighter port in a automobile. The most common form of cell phone batteries were Nickel Metal Hydride. These types of batteries are ideal for their size and weight, but they seem to go dead first if the user does not let them run down all the way before charging them again (this is called 'memory effect'). The other common type of batteries used in Cell Phones are Lithium-Ion, which are lighter and do not have the memory effect that Nickel Metal Hydride batteries do.
Features
There is significant questions as to who first invented the camera phone, as numerous other people received patents filed in the early 90s for the device, including David M. Britz of AT&T Research in March of 1994. However, Phillipe Kahn claims to have first invented it in 1997 and the camera phone is now 85% of the market. In a recent[14], Philippe Kahn, who built a camera phone, discusses its social impact and how it connects people around the world.[15] Mobile phones also often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls—including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organizers, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video call and serve as a wireless modem for a PC.
In most countries, including European nations, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, Australia, Chile, Colombia, India,[16] Maldives, Peru, South Africa and Israel the person receiving a mobile phone call pays nothing. However, in Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States, one can be charged per minute. In the United States, a few carriers are beginning to offer unlimited received phone calls. For example as of December 2006, Sprint now has 4 plans under "Sprint Free Incoming Plans" section of their website, although the restriction is the receiving phone must be on the Sprint PCS network. For the Chinese mainland, it was reported that both of its two operators will adopt the caller-pays approach as early as January 2007.[16]
Technology
Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and nation to nation. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic radio waves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building.
The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, usually not more than 5 to 8 miles (approximately 8 to 13 kilometers) away. When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations. As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will "handoff" to various cell sites during calls, or while waiting (idle) between calls it will reselect cell sites.
Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. Many of these sites are camouflaged to blend with existing environments, particularly in high-scenery areas.
The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digital data that includes digitized audio (except for the first generation analog networks). The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. Some technologies include AMPS for analog, and D-AMPS, CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS, EV-DO, and UMTS for digital communications. Each network operator has a unique radio frequency band.
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