Digital Phone Service

Today you will scarcely see a person out in the street without a phone in his hand. However, all the users hardly know about the basic principle of cellular technology on which these wireless phones function. A wireless cell phone is a handy electronic gadget used for transmitting voice or data communication using a network of base stations called cell sites. These specialized base stations are linked to the PSTN. Now-a-days, cell phones come equipped with a number of additional facilities like SMS, email, packet switching for internet access, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS.

The origin of wireless cell phone  

Japan was the first to launch mobile phones on a commercial basis of service in 1978. The cellular technology gained quick popularity and by 2007, the net cell phone subscription in the world crossed 3.3 billion. Cell phones with internet access facility were launched by the Nokia Communicator in 1996. NTT DoCoMo of Japan followed suit in 1999 and wireless email became a rage under the i-Mode service. People soon started using their mobile phones more frequently over their PC to avail mobile internet services like WAP.

How cellular technology works   

The base stations of cell phones are provided with microwave antennas that facilitate sending and receiving of radio signals. You will find most of these sites on elevated surfaces like towers, poles and buildings for catching maximum signal. Since a wireless cell phone has a low-power transmitter, it is important that for these cell sites to be closely distributed throughout the local area for best voice and data transmissions.

When a mobile phone is on, it catches up with the mobile telephone exchange or switch and becomes sensitive to incoming calls. The cellular technology enables a mobile phone to stay connected to the signals it receives from a nearby base station and to change sites according to the position of the user. This site switching is done without any breaks to the ongoing call.

The cell sites function by maintaining a constant communication between itself and the mobile handsets. This communication is based on a series of digital data. If your phone happens to be under the same wireless service provider, a call would be automatically connected to you. Alternately, if you are making a call to some other wireless carriers, the call will be transmitted to the public telephone network. 

Hazards of cellular technology

Sometimes your wireless cell phone may fall prey to the dangers of ‘cloning’ when it moves out of network coverage area. When you move back to the tower area, your cell phones sends an automatic 're-connect' signal to the nearest cell-tower. At this point, it is possible to intercept this signal for re-connection and copy the whole information from your cell phone into a ‘blank’ phone that becomes a veritable clone. Hence, the next time any ‘wrong’ calls are made from this clone, you will be the one to face the music.

You may also suffer from physical farm having a transmitter placed close to your body. With earlier versions of car phones and bag phones, there were only three watts Effective Radiated Power. But the close-range modern cell phones have transmission antennas with 0.6 watts ERP having serious biological side effects. 

Who are the leading handset manufacturers?

Right now, Nokia is ruling the roost with 40% of the global device market share. Other mobile phones manufacturers include Samsung (14%), Motorola (14%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG (7%). Altogether, they occupy quite a significant portion of the market and their net share amounts to 80% sale. You will also come across some not too well known brands like Apple Inc., BenQ-Siemens, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, Trium and Toshiba. Most of these offer specialized system communications distantly related to cell phones.

Application varieties of mobile phones

Apart from making calls, cell phones are largely used for sending SMS text messages. This is such an inexpensive mode of communication that by 2007, an American survey recorded 2.6 SMS sent daily per head across the whole mobile phone subscriber base. Well, this popular option of SMS goes back to its first application in 1992 when a computer was used to send a message to a wireless cell phone. The other mobile usages include downloading mobile music, logos and pictures, gaming and advertising.

In fact, mobile phones were used as media vehicles for marketing ringing tones in 1998 in Finland. News, videogames, jokes, horoscopes were the other things to be set as a part of advertising campaigns. The popularity of mobile phones made it surpass the internet paid media content in 1996.

The configuration of cell phones

A wireless cell phone functions on some basic inter-cellular gadgets:

• A 'cell' phone is called so because of its battery, which is the source of its power. These batteries are rechargeable from a USB port. A solar panel dynamo, car adapters and portable batteries are the other sources for recharging it.
• A Subscriber Identity Module microchip or a SIM card acts as the mobile phones’ memory. SIM cards are not fixed to a single handset; they can be transferred to any mobile phone and all the stored data retrieved.
• The battery and the SIM card are the heart of any wireless cell phone and vital to its operation.