Definition of the word a mobile phone

For the modern mobile phone, see Smartphone.

A mobile phone (cellphone, etc.)^[a] is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone (landline phone). The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones (or «cell phones») in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messagIng, email, Internet access (via LTE, 5G NR or Wi-Fi), short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), satellite access (navigation, messaging connectivity), business applications, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.^[1]

The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City on 3 April 1973, using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs).^[2] In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world’s first cellular network in Japan.^[3] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion; enough to provide one for every person on Earth.^[4] In the first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone developers worldwide were Samsung, Apple and Huawei; smartphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales.^[5] For feature phones (slang: «dumbphones») as of 2016, the top-selling brands were Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel.^[6]

Mobile phones are considered an important human invention as it has been one of the most widely used and sold pieces of consumer technology.^[7] The growth in popularity has been rapid in some places, for example in the UK the total number of mobile phones overtook the number of houses in 1999.^[8] Today mobile phones are globally ubiquitous,^[9] and in almost half the world’s countries, over 90% of the population own at least one.^[10]

History

A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a «pocket-size folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone». Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains. The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. The advances in mobile telephony have been traced in successive «generations», starting with the early zeroth-generation (0G) services, such as Bell System’s Mobile Telephone Service and its successor, the Improved Mobile Telephone Service. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, and were very expensive.

The first handheld cellular mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell^[11][12] and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 kilograms (4.4 lb).^[2] The first commercial automated cellular network (1G) analog was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979. This was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.^[13] Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation (1G) systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone.

In 1991, the second-generation (2G) digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. The GSM standard is a European initiative expressed at the CEPT («Conférence Européenne des Postes et Telecommunications», European Postal and Telecommunications conference). The Franco-German R&D cooperation demonstrated the technical feasibility, and in 1987 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between 13 European countries who agreed to launch a commercial service by 1991. The first version of the GSM (=2G) standard had 6,000 pages. The IEEE and RSE awarded to Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis the 2018 James Clerk Maxwell medal for their contributions to the first digital mobile telephone standard.^[14] In 2018, the GSM was used by over 5 billion people in over 220 countries. The GSM (2G) has evolved into 3G, 4G and 5G. The standardisation body for GSM started at the CEPT Working Group GSM (Group Special Mobile) in 1982 under the umbrella of CEPT. In 1988, ETSI was established and all CEPT standardization activities were transferred to ETSI. Working Group GSM became Technical Committee GSM. In 1991, it became Technical Committee SMG (Special Mobile Group) when ETSI tasked the committee with UMTS (3G).

In 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.^[15] This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.

By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming media.^[16] Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard, offered in North America by Sprint, and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera.

5G is a technology and term used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase in mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. The term 5G is not officially used in any specification or official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum or ITU-R. New standards beyond 4G are currently being developed by standardization bodies, but they are at this time seen as under the 4G umbrella, not for a new mobile generation.

Types

Smartphone

Smartphones have a number of distinguishing features. The International Telecommunication Union measures those with Internet connection, which it calls Active Mobile-Broadband subscriptions (which includes tablets, etc.). In the developed world, smartphones have now overtaken the usage of earlier mobile systems. However, in the developing world, they account for around 50% of mobile telephony.

Feature phone

Feature phone is a term typically used as a retronym to describe mobile phones which are limited in capabilities in contrast to a modern smartphone. Feature phones typically provide voice calling and text messaging functionality, in addition to basic multimedia and Internet capabilities, and other services offered by the user’s wireless service provider. A feature phone has additional functions over and above a basic mobile phone, which is only capable of voice calling and text messaging.^[18][19] Feature phones and basic mobile phones tend to use a proprietary, custom-designed software and user interface. By contrast, smartphones generally use a mobile operating system that often shares common traits across devices.

Infrastructure

The critical advantage that modern cellular networks have over predecessor systems is the concept of frequency reuse allowing many simultaneous telephone conversations in a given service area. This allows efficient use of the limited radio spectrum allocated to mobile services, and lets thousands of subscribers converse at the same time within a given geographic area.

Former systems would cover a service area with one or two powerful base stations with a range of up to tens of kilometres (miles), using only a few sets of radio channels (frequencies). Once these few channels were in use by customers, no further customers could be served until another user vacated a channel. It would be impractical to give every customer a unique channel since there would not be enough bandwidth allocated to the mobile service. As well, technical limitations such as antenna efficiency and receiver design limit the range of frequencies a customer unit could use.

A cellular network mobile phone system gets its name from dividing the service area into many small cells, each with a base station with (for example) a useful range on the order of a kilometre (mile). These systems have dozens or hundreds of possible channels allocated to them. When a subscriber is using a given channel for a telephone connection, that frequency is unavailable for other customers in the local cell and in the adjacent cells. However, cells further away can re-use that channel without interference as the subscriber’s handset is too far away to be detected. The transmitter power of each base station is coordinated to efficiently service its own cell, but not to interfere with the cells further away.

Automation embedded in the customer’s handset and in the base stations control all phases of the call, from detecting the presence of a handset in a service area, temporary assignment of a channel to a handset making a call, interface with the land-line side of the network to connect to other subscribers, and collection of billing information for the service. The automation systems can control the «hand off» of a customer handset moving between one cell and another so that a call in progress continues without interruption, changing channels if required. In the earliest mobile phone systems by contrast, all control was done manually; the customer would search for an unoccupied channel and speak to a mobile operator to request connection of a call to a landline number or another mobile. At the termination of the call the mobile operator would manually record the billing information.

Mobile phones communicate with cell towers that are placed to give coverage across a telephone service area, which is divided up into ‘cells’. Each cell uses a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, and will typically be covered by three towers placed at different locations. The cell towers are usually interconnected to each other and the phone network and the internet by wired connections. Due to bandwidth limitations each cell will have a maximum number of cell phones it can handle at once. The cells are therefore sized depending on the expected usage density, and may be much smaller in cities. In that case much lower transmitter powers are used to avoid broadcasting beyond the cell.

In order to handle the high traffic, multiple towers can be set up in the same area (using different frequencies). This can be done permanently or temporarily such as at special events or in disasters. Cell phone companies will bring a truck with equipment to host the abnormally high traffic.

Capacity was further increased when phone companies implemented digital networks. With digital, one frequency can host multiple simultaneous calls.

Additionally, short-range Wi-Fi infrastructure is often used by smartphones as much as possible as it offloads traffic from cell networks on to local area networks.

Hardware

The common components found on all mobile phones are:

• A central processing unit (CPU), the processor of phones. The CPU is a microprocessor fabricated on a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chip.
• A battery, providing the power source for the phone functions. A modern handset typically uses a lithium-ion battery (LIB), whereas older handsets used nickel–metal hydride (Ni–MH) batteries.
• An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. These are a keypad for feature phones, and touch screens for most smartphones (typically with capacitive sensing).
• A display which echoes the user’s typing, and displays text messages, contacts, and more. The display is typically either a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display.
• Speakers for sound.
• Subscriber identity module (SIM) cards and removable user identity module (R-UIM) cards.
• A hardware notification LED on some phones

Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones and offer basic telephony. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications are known as smartphones.

Central processing unit

Mobile phones have central processing units (CPUs), similar to those in computers, but optimised to operate in low power environments.

Mobile CPU performance depends not only on the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz)^[20] but also the memory hierarchy also greatly affects overall performance. Because of these problems, the performance of mobile phone CPUs is often more appropriately given by scores derived from various standardized tests to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.

Display

One of the main characteristics of phones is the screen. Depending on the device’s type and design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device’s front surface. Many smartphone displays have an aspect ratio of 16:9, but taller aspect ratios became more common in 2017.

Screen sizes are often measured in diagonal inches or millimeters; feature phones generally have screen sizes below 90 millimetres (3.5 in). Phones with screens larger than 130 millimetres (5.2 in) are often called «phablets.» Smartphones with screens over 115 millimetres (4.5 in) in size are commonly difficult to use with only a single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface; they may need to be shifted around in the hand, held in one hand and manipulated by the other, or used in place with both hands. Due to design advances, some modern smartphones with large screen sizes and «edge-to-edge» designs have compact builds that improve their ergonomics, while the shift to taller aspect ratios have resulted in phones that have larger screen sizes whilst maintaining the ergonomics associated with smaller 16:9 displays.^[21][22][23]

Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, and AMOLED displays. Some displays are integrated with pressure-sensitive digitizers, such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung,^[24] and Apple’s «3D Touch» system.

Sound

In sound, smartphones and feature phones vary little. Some audio-quality enhancing features, such as Voice over LTE and HD Voice, have appeared and are often available on newer smartphones. Sound quality can remain a problem due to the design of the phone, the quality of the cellular network and compression algorithms used in long-distance calls.^[25][26] Audio quality can be improved using a VoIP application over WiFi.^[27] Cellphones have small speakers so that the user can use a speakerphone feature and talk to a person on the phone without holding it to their ear. The small speakers can also be used to listen to digital audio files of music or speech or watch videos with an audio component, without holding the phone close to the ear.

Battery

The average phone battery lasts 2–3 years at best. Many of the wireless devices use a Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery, which charges 500–2500 times, depending on how users take care of the battery and the charging techniques used.^[28] It is only natural for these rechargeable batteries to chemically age, which is why the performance of the battery when used for a year or two will begin to deteriorate. Battery life can be extended by draining it regularly, not overcharging it, and keeping it away from heat.^[29][30]

SIM card

Mobile phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card, in order 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) and the K_i used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone. 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, provided that this is not prevented by a SIM lock. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja.^{[citation needed]}

A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards, with a phone having a different device identifier for each SIM Card. SIM and R-UIM cards may be mixed together to allow both GSM and CDMA networks to be accessed. From 2010 onwards, such phones became popular in emerging markets,^[31] and this was attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest calling costs.

When the removal of a SIM card is detected by the operating system, it may deny further operation until a reboot.^[32]

Software

Software platforms

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2018)

Feature phones have basic software platforms. Smartphones have advanced software platforms. Android OS has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011.

Mobile app

A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone. The term «app» is a shortening of the term «software application».

Messaging

A common data application on mobile phones is Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. The first SMS 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. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000,^[33] and subsequently many organizations provided «on-demand» and «instant» news services by SMS. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced in March 2002.^[34]

Application stores

The introduction of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications (software and computer programs) focused on a single platform. There are a huge variety of apps, including video games, music products and business tools. Up until that point, smartphone application distribution depended on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar, Handango, Handmark, and PocketGear. Following the success of the App Store, other smartphone manufacturers launched application stores, such as Google’s Android Market (later renamed to the Google Play Store), RIM’s BlackBerry App World, or Android-related app stores like Aptoide, Cafe Bazaar, F-Droid, GetJar, and Opera Mobile Store. In February 2014, 93% of mobile developers were targeting smartphones first for mobile app development.^[35]

Sales

By manufacturer

Market share of top-five worldwide mobile phone vendors, Q2 2022

Rank	Manufacturer	Strategy Analytics report[36]
1	Samsung	21%
2	Apple	16%
3	Xiaomi	13%
4	Oppo	10%
5	Vivo	9%
	Others	31%
Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.

As of 2022, the top five manufacturers worldwide were Samsung (21%), Apple (16%), Xiaomi (13%), Oppo (10%), and Vivo (9%).^[36]

History

From 1983 to 1998, Motorola was market leader in mobile phones. Nokia was the market leader in mobile phones from 1998 to 2012.^[37] In Q1 2012, Samsung surpassed Nokia, selling 93.5 million units as against Nokia’s 82.7 million units. Samsung has retained its top position since then.

Aside from Motorola, European brands such as Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson once held large sway over the global mobile phone market, and many new technologies were pioneered in Europe. By 2010, the influence of European companies had significantly decreased due to fierce competition from American and Asian companies, to where most technical innovation had shifted.^[38][39] Apple and Google, both of the United States, also came to dominate mobile phone software.^[38]

By mobile phone operator

The world’s largest individual mobile operator by number of subscribers is China Mobile, which has over 902 million mobile phone subscribers as of June 2018.^[40] Over 50 mobile operators have over ten million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators had at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009.^[41] In 2014, there were more than seven billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, a number that is expected to keep growing.

Use

Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, such as keeping in touch with family members, for conducting business, and in order to have access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one mobile phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may be used to take advantage of the benefits of different calling plans. For example, a particular plan might provide for cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming.

The mobile phone has been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society. For example:

• A study by Motorola found that one in ten mobile phone subscribers have a second phone that is often kept secret from other family members. These phones may be used to engage in such activities as extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.^[42]
• Some organizations assist victims of domestic violence by providing mobile phones for use in emergencies. These are often refurbished phones.^[43]
• The advent of widespread text-messaging has resulted in the cell phone novel, the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age, via text messaging to a website that collects the novels as a whole.^[44]
• Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and citizen journalism.
• The United Nations reported that mobile phones have spread faster than any other form of technology and can improve the livelihood of the poorest people in developing countries, by providing access to information in places where landlines or the Internet are not available, especially in the least developed countries. Use of mobile phones also spawns a wealth of micro-enterprises, by providing such work as selling airtime on the streets and repairing or refurbishing handsets.^[45]
• In Mali and other African countries, people used to travel from village to village to let friends and relatives know about weddings, births, and other events. This can now be avoided in areas with mobile phone coverage, which are usually more extensive than areas with just land-line penetration.
• The TV industry has recently started using mobile phones to drive live TV viewing through mobile apps, advertising, social TV, and mobile TV.^[46] It is estimated that 86% of Americans use their mobile phone while watching TV.
• In some parts of the world, mobile phone sharing is common. Cell phone sharing is prevalent in urban India, as families and groups of friends often share one or more mobile phones among their members. There are obvious economic benefits, but often familial customs and traditional gender roles play a part.^[47] It is common for a village to have access to only one mobile phone, perhaps owned by a teacher or missionary, which is available to all members of the village for necessary calls.^[48]

Content distribution

In 1998, one of the first examples of distributing and selling media content through the mobile phone was the sale of ringtones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon afterwards, other media content appeared, such as news, video games, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. Most early content for mobile phones tended to be copies of legacy media, such as banner advertisements or TV news highlight video clips. Recently, unique content for mobile phones has been emerging, from ringtones and ringback tones to mobisodes, video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.^{[citation needed]}

Mobile banking and payment

In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya’s M-PESA mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash can be deposited or withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country and can be transferred electronically from person to person and used to pay bills to companies.

Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and the Philippines. A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank, Bank Mandiri.^[49]

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 country’s first commercial mobile payments systems with mobile operators Globe and Smart.^{[citation needed]}

Some mobile phones can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes, or through contactless payments if the phone and the point of sale support near field communication (NFC).^[50] Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators, and retail merchants.^[51][52]

Mobile tracking

Mobile phones are commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not) using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the mobile phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.^[53][54]

The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their governments. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked.^[53]

China has proposed using this technology to track the commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.^[55] In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobile phones to perform surveillance operations.^[56]

Hackers have been able to track a phone’s location, read messages, and record calls, through obtaining a subscribers phone number.^[57]

While driving

Mobile phone use while driving, including talking on the phone, texting, or operating other phone features, is common but controversial. It is widely considered dangerous due to distracted driving. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accidents. In September 2010, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 995 people were killed by drivers distracted by cell phones. In March 2011, a US insurance company, State Farm Insurance, announced the results of a study which showed 19% of drivers surveyed accessed the Internet on a smartphone while driving.^[58] Many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. In Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal, and Singapore, both handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone (which uses a speakerphone) is banned. In other countries, including the UK and France and in many US states, only handheld phone use is banned while hands-free use is permitted.

A 2011 study reported that over 90% of college students surveyed text (initiate, reply or read) while driving.^[59]
The scientific literature on the dangers of driving while sending a text message from a mobile phone, or texting while driving, is limited. A simulation study at the University of Utah found a sixfold increase in distraction-related accidents when texting.^[60]

Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials when attempting to distinguish one usage from another in drivers using their devices. This is more apparent in countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those which ban handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally for a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device legally, for example, when using the phone’s incorporated controls for car stereo, GPS or satnav.

A 2010 study reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety.^[61] In 2013, a national survey in the US reported the number of drivers who reported using their cellphones to access the Internet while driving had risen to nearly one of four.^[62] A study conducted by the University of Vienna examined approaches for reducing inappropriate and problematic use of mobile phones, such as using mobile phones while driving.^[63]

Accidents involving a driver being distracted by talking on a mobile phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to speeding. In the United Kingdom, from 27 February 2007, motorists who are caught using a hand-held mobile phone while driving will have three penalty points added to their license in addition to the fine of £60.^[64] This increase was introduced to try to stem the increase in drivers ignoring the law.^[65] Japan prohibits all mobile phone use while driving, including use of hands-free devices. New Zealand has banned hand-held cell phone use since 1 November 2009. Many states in the United States have banned texting on cell phones while driving. Illinois became the 17th American state to enforce this law.^[66] As of July 2010, 30 states had banned texting while driving, with Kentucky becoming the most recent addition on 15 July.^[67]

Public Health Law Research maintains a list of distracted driving laws in the United States. This database of laws provides a comprehensive view of the provisions of laws that restrict the use of mobile communication devices while driving for all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1992 when first law was passed, through 1 December 2010. The dataset contains information on 22 dichotomous, continuous or categorical variables including, for example, activities regulated (e.g., texting versus talking, hands-free versus handheld), targeted populations, and exemptions.^[68]

While walking

In 2010, an estimated 1500 pedestrians were injured in the US while using a cellphone and some jurisdictions have attempted to ban pedestrians from using their cellphones.^[69][70] Other countries, such as China and the Netherlands, have introduced special lanes for smartphone users to help direct and manage them.^[71][72]

Health effects

The effect of mobile phone radiation on human health is the subject of recent^[when?] interest and study, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals and in humans. The majority of this research shows no definite causative relationship between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones, although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation.^{[citation needed]}

On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization stated that mobile phone use may possibly represent a long-term health risk,^[73][74] classifying mobile phone radiation as «possibly carcinogenic to humans» after a team of scientists reviewed studies on mobile phone safety.^[75] The mobile phone is in category 2B, which ranks it alongside coffee and other possibly carcinogenic substances.^[76][77]

Some recent^[when?] studies have found an association between mobile phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years «approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same (‘ipsilateral’) side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use».^[78]

One study of past mobile phone use cited in the report showed a «40% increased risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period)».^[79] This is a reversal of the study’s prior position that cancer was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no convincing evidence for other health effects.^[74][80] However, a study published 24 March 2012, in the British Medical Journal questioned these estimates because the increase in brain cancers has not paralleled the increase in mobile phone use.^[81] Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of mobile phones by minors in particular, due to health risk uncertainties.^[82] Mobile pollution by transmitting electromagnetic waves can be decreased up to 90% by adopting the circuit as designed in mobile phone and mobile exchange.^[83]

In May 2016, preliminary findings of a long-term study by the US government suggested that radio-frequency (RF) radiation, the type emitted by cell phones, can cause cancer.^[84][85]

Educational impact

A study by the London School of Economics found that banning mobile phones in schools could increase pupils’ academic performance, providing benefits equal to one extra week of schooling per year.^[86]

Electronic waste regulation

Studies have shown that around 40–50% of the environmental impact of mobile phones occurs during the manufacture of their printed wiring boards and integrated circuits.^[87]

The average user replaces their mobile phone every 11 to 18 months,^[88] and the discarded phones then contribute to electronic waste. Mobile phone manufacturers within Europe are subject to the WEEE directive, and Australia has introduced a mobile phone recycling scheme.^[89]

Apple Inc. had an advanced robotic disassembler and sorter called Liam specifically for recycling outdated or broken iPhones.^[90]

Theft

According to the Federal Communications Commission, one out of three robberies involve the theft of a cellular phone.^{[citation needed]} Police data in San Francisco show that half of all robberies in 2012 were thefts of cellular phones.^{[citation needed]} An online petition on Change.org, called Secure our Smartphones, urged smartphone manufacturers to install kill switches in their devices to make them unusable if stolen. The petition is part of a joint effort by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and was directed to the CEOs of the major smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers.^[91] On 10 June 2013, Apple announced that it would install a «kill switch» on its next iPhone operating system, due to debut in October 2013.^[92]

All mobile phones have a unique identifier called IMEI. Anyone can report their phone as lost or stolen with their Telecom Carrier, and the IMEI would be blacklisted with a central registry.^[93] Telecom carriers, depending upon local regulation can or must implement blocking of blacklisted phones in their network. There are, however, a number of ways to circumvent a blacklist. One method is to send the phone to a country where the telecom carriers are not required to implement the blacklisting and sell it there,^[94] another involves altering the phone’s IMEI number.^[95] Even so, mobile phones typically have less value on the second-hand market if the phones original IMEI is blacklisted.

Conflict minerals

Demand for metals used in mobile phones and other electronics fuelled the Second Congo War, which claimed almost 5.5 million lives.^[96] In a 2012 news story, The Guardian reported: «In unsafe mines deep underground in eastern Congo, children are working to extract minerals essential for the electronics industry. The profits from the minerals finance the bloodiest conflict since the second world war; the war has lasted nearly 20 years and has recently flared up again. For the last 15 years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been a major source of natural resources for the mobile phone industry.»^[97] The company Fairphone has worked to develop a mobile phone that does not contain conflict minerals.^{[citation needed]}

Kosher phones

Due to concerns by the Orthodox Jewish rabbinate in Britain that texting by youths could waste time and lead to «immodest» communication, the rabbinate recommended that phones with text-messaging capability not be used by children; to address this, they gave their official approval to a brand of «Kosher» phones with no texting capabilities. Although these phones are intended to prevent immodesty, some vendors report good sales to adults who prefer the simplicity of the devices; other Orthodox Jews question the need for them.^[98]

In Israel, similar phones to kosher phones with restricted features exist to observe the sabbath; under Orthodox Judaism, the use of any electrical device is generally prohibited during this time, other than to save lives, or reduce the risk of death or similar needs. Such phones are approved for use by essential workers, such as health, security, and public service workers.^[99]

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• «How Cell Phones Work» at HowStuffWorks
• «The Long Odyssey of the Cell Phone», 15 photos with captions from Time magazine
• Cell Phone, the ring heard around the world – a video documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

What Does Mobile Phone Mean?

A mobile phone is a wireless handheld device that allows users to make and receive calls. While the earliest generation of mobile phones could only make and receive calls, today’s mobile phones do a lot more, accommodating web browsers, games, cameras, video players and navigational systems.

Also, while mobile phones used to be mainly known as “cell phones” or cellular phones, today’s mobile phones are more commonly called “smartphones” because of all of the extra voice and data services that they offer.

Techopedia Explains Mobile Phone

The first mobile phones, as mentioned, were only used to make and receive calls, and they were so bulky it was impossible to carry them in a pocket. These phones used primitive RFID and wireless systems to carry signals from a cabled PSTN endpoint.

Later, mobile phones belonging to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network became capable of sending and receiving text messages. As these devices evolved, they became smaller and more features were added, such as multimedia messaging service (MMS), which allowed users to send and receive images.

Most of these MMS-capable devices were also equipped with cameras, which allowed users to capture photos, add captions, and send them to friends and relatives who also had MMS-capable phones.

Along with the texting and camera features, cell phones started to be made with a limited capability to access the Internet, known as “data services.” The earliest phone browsers were proprietary and only allowed for the use of a small subsection of the Internet, allowing users to access items like weather, news, and sports updates.

Eventually, phone makers started to engineer these phones to access the entire Internet, and webmasters for all sorts of businesses, government offices and other domain holders started to make web sites responsive to access by mobile phones. The trend, called “responsive design,” changed the face of the Internet, with mobile phone transactions making up a larger share of ecommerce sales and other activities.

Networks and Access

A mobile phone typically operates on a cellular network, which is composed of cell sites scattered throughout cities, countrysides and even mountainous regions. If a user happens to be located in an area where there is no signal from any cell site belonging to the cellular network provider he or she is subscribed to, calls cannot be placed or received in that location.

However, the cellular networks used for mobile phones, now called “smartphones” when they encompass modern design, have also evolved. At the same time, the networks used by the smart have also evolved.

First, the 4G telecommunications network pioneered an all-Internet transmission system using things like smart antenna arrays and point-to-point network “fabrics.” While still being called a “cellular network,” 4G relied on IP transmission, rather than traditional telephone circuit switching, which led to certain reception and transmission efficiencies.

Now, a dominant model called 5G is being unrolled throughout the world. The 5G system uses higher frequency waves and a closer cell structure, which changes the networking style and promises greater bandwidth for users.

On the device side, as companies continue to produce newer smartphones, two major operating systems have emerged. The Apple and Android operating systems are installed in the lion’s share of new smartphones by various manufacturers.

With both of these operating system platforms, it has become routine for engineers to build hundreds of different types of functionality into modern smartphones through the design of mobile applications or “apps.” Application stores facilitate the purchase and use of these diverse applications.

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Despite being in public life, I value my own privacy immensely and would be as concerned as anyone else if I thought my mobile phone records could be easily available to officials across government.

David Blunkett

PRONUNCIATION OF MOBILE PHONE

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF MOBILE PHONE

Mobile phone is a noun.

WHAT DOES MOBILE PHONE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of mobile phone in the English dictionary

The definition of mobile phone in the dictionary is a portable telephone that works by means of a cellular radio system.

TRANSLATION OF MOBILE PHONE

Find out the translation of mobile phone to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «MOBILE PHONE»

The term «mobile phone» is very widely used and occupies the 5.945 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of mobile phone

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «MOBILE PHONE» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «MOBILE PHONE»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word mobile phone.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «MOBILE PHONE»

Discover the use of mobile phone in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to mobile phone and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «MOBILE PHONE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term mobile phone is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Mobile phone [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/mobile-phone>. Apr 2023 ».

Last Updated:
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— Updated example sentences

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

«Handphone» redirects here. For the film, see Handphone (film).

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator. The calls are to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed-line phones across the world. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station.

In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 1/2 lbs (about 1 kg).^[1] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.^[2][3][4]

History

Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden’s invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s.

The first mobile telephone call made from a car occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on June 17, 1946, using the Bell System’s Mobile Telephone Service. The equipment weighed 80 pounds (36 kg), and the AT&T service, basically a massive party line, cost US$30 per month (equal to $337.33 today) plus 30–40 cents per local call, equal to $3.37 to $4.50 today.^[5]

In 1956, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was launched in Sweden. MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, 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 to enhance the telephone’s calling capacity and improve its operational reliability, thereby reducing the weight of the apparatus to 10 kg. In 1971, the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success.^[6][7]

Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting, after a long race against Bell Labs for the first portable mobile phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.^[8]

The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G) was launched in Japan by NTT 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 nationwide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.^[9] 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-to-mid 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 launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.^[10]

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.

Features

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 past 20 years.

The common components found on all phones are:

• A battery, providing the power source for the phone functions.
• An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. The most common input mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high-end smartphones.
• Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages.
• All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be swapped among devices. Some CDMA devices also have a similar card called a R-UIM.
• Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone devices are uniquely identified by an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

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 smartphones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which added PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturization 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.^[11] Some phones can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes or through contactless payments if the phone and point of sale support Near Field Communication (NFC).^[12] Some of the largest mobile phone manufacturers and network providers along with many retail merchants support, or plan to support, contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones.^[13][14][15]

Some phones have an electromechanical transducer on the back which changes the electrical voice signal into mechanical vibrations. The vibrations flow through the cheek bones or forehead allowing the user to hear the conversation. This is useful in the noisy situations or if the user is hard of hearing. ^[16]

Software and applications

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 ringtone 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 organizations 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 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, the first wireless charger was released for consumer use.^[17]

Various initiatives, such as the EU Common External Power Supply have been announced to standardize the interface to the charger, and to promote energy efficiency of mains-operated chargers. A star rating system is promoted by some manufacturers, where the most efficient chargers consume less than 0.03 watts and obtain a five-star rating.

^[18]

Battery

A popular early mobile phone battery was the nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) type, due to its relatively small size and low weight. Lithium ion batteries are also used, as they are lighter and do not have the Voltage depression due to long-term over-charging that nickel metal-hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone manufacturers use lithium–polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-Ion, the main advantages being even lower weight and the possibility to make the battery a shape other than strict cuboid.^[19] Mobile phone manufacturers have been experimenting with alternative power sources, including solar cells.^[20]

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, defined by ISO/IEC 7810 as ID-1). The newer, most popular miniature version has the same thickness but a length of 25 mm and a width of 15 mm (ISO/IEC 7810 ID-000), 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 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja. Giesecke & Devrient sold the first 300 SIM cards to Elisa (ex. 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 only to the SIM, so once the contract has expired, the MSL still applies to the SIM. The phone, however, is also initially locked by the manufacturer into the Service Provider’s MSL. This lock may be disabled so that the phone can use other Service Providers’ SIM cards. Most phones purchased outside the U.S. are unlocked phones because there are numerous Service Providers that are 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 or RUIM card is present in some CDMA networks, notably in China and Indonesia.

Multi-card hybrid phones

A hybrid mobile phone can take more than one SIM card, even of different types. The SIM and RUIM cards can be mixed together, and some phones also support three or four SIMs.^[21][22]

From 2010 onwards they became popular in India and Indonesia and other emerging markets,^[23] attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest on-net calling rate. In Q3 2011, Nokia shipped 18 million of its low cost dual SIM phone range in an attempt to make up lost ground in the higher end smartphone market.^[24]

Display

Mobile phones have a display device, some of which are also touch screens. The screen size varies greatly by model and is usually specified either as width and height in pixels or the diagonal measured in inches.

Some mobiles have more than one display, for example the Kyocera Echo, an Android smartphone with a dual 3.5 inch screen. The screens can also be combined into a single 4.7 inch tablet style computer.^[25]

Central processing unit

Mobile phones have central processing units (CPUs), similar to those in computers, but optimised to operate in low power environments.

Mobile CPU performance depends not only on the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz)^[26] but also the memory hierarchy also greatly affects overall performance. Because of these problems, the performance of mobile phone CPUs is often more appropriately given by scores derived from various standardized tests to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.

Manufacturers

See also: List of best-selling mobile phones

The world’s largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 500 million mobile phone subscribers.^[27] 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). In February 2010, there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, a number that is estimated to grow.^[4]

Prior to 2010, Nokia was the market leader. However, during that year competition emerged in the Asia Pacific region with brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile and chipped away at Nokia’s market share. Android powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at the expense of Nokia. In India, their market share also dropped significantly to around 31 percent from 56 percent in the same period. Their share was displaced by Chinese and Indian vendors of low-end mobile phones.^[28]

In 2010 worldwide sales were 1.6 billion units, an increase of 31.8 percent from 2009. The top five manufacturers by market share were Nokia followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, ZTE and Apple. The last three replaced RIM, Sony Ericsson and Motorola who were previously among the top five list.^[29][30] Outside the top five a significant market share increase from 16.5 percent to 30.6 percent was achieved by many smaller and new brands.

In Q1 2011, Apple surpassed Nokia as the world’s biggest handset vendor by revenue, as Nokia’s market share dropped to 29 percent in Q1 2011, the lowest level since the late 1990s. In June 2011, Nokia announced lower expectations for sales and margin due to global competition in both low-and-high end markets.^[31]

By Q2 2011, worldwide sales grew 16.5 percent to 428.7 million units.

Top five manufacturers by market share in Q2 2011

Manufacturer	Gartner [32]	IDC [33]
Nokia	22.8%	24.2%
SAMSUNG	16.3%	19.2%
LG	5.7%	6.8%
Apple	4.6%	5.6%
ZTE	3.0%	4.5%
Others	47.6%	39.7%

• Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors

Other manufacturers outside the top five are Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), HTC Corporation, Motorola, Huawei, Sony Ericsson. Smaller players include Audiovox (now UTStarcom), BenQ-Siemens, CECT, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Panasonic, Palm, Pantech Wireless Inc., Philips, Qualcomm Inc., Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, Just5, SK Teletech, T&A Alcatel, Trium, Toshiba, and Vidalco.

Use of mobile phones

In general

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.^[34] The mobile phone has also been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society, for example:

• Organizations that aid victims of domestic violence may offer a cell phone to potential victims without the abuser’s knowledge. These devices are often old phones that are donated and refurbished to meet the victim’s emergency needs.^[35]
• The advent of widespread text messaging has resulted in the cell phone novel; the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age via text messaging to a website that collects the novels as a whole.^[36] Paul Levinson, in Information on the Move (2004), says «…nowadays, a writer can write just about as easily, anywhere, as a reader can read» and they are «not only personal but portable.»
• Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo!^[37] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.
• Mobile phones help lift poor out of poverty. The United Nations has reported that mobile phones—spreading faster than any other information technology—can improve the livelihood of the poorest people in developing countries. The economic benefits of mobile phones go well beyond access to information where a landline or Internet is not yet available in rural areas, mostly in Least Developed Countries. Mobile phones have spawned a wealth of micro-enterprises, offering work to people with little education and few resources, such as selling airtime on the streets and repairing or refurbishing handsets.^[38]
• In Mali and some African countries, villagers sometimes had to go from village to village all day, covering up to 20 villages, to let friends and relatives know about a wedding, a birth or a death, but such travel is no longer necessary if the villages are within the coverage area of a mobile phone network. Like in many African countries, the coverage is better than that of landline networks, and most people own a mobile phone. However, small villages have no electricity, leaving mobile phone owners to have to recharge their phone batteries using a solar panel or motorcycle battery.^[39]
• The TV industry has recently started using mobile phones to drive live TV viewing through mobile apps, advertising, social tv, and mobile TV.^[40] 86% of Americans use their mobile phone while watching TV.
• In March 2011, a pilot project experimenting with branchless banking was launched by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, and Bank Harapan Bali, a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri—the biggest bank in Indonesia and one of the cellular operators in Bali. Its aim is to increase the amount of bank customers. In Indonesia, only 60 million people have a bank account even though banks have existed for more than a hundred years, whereas 114 million people have become users of mobile phones in only two decades. Branchless banking has been successful in Kenya, South Africa and Philippines.^[41]

By the media

In 1998, one of the first examples of selling media content through the mobile phone was the sale of ringtones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon afterwards, other media content appeared such as news, video games, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. 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.

In 2006, the total value of mobile-phone-paid media content exceeded Internet-paid media content and was worth 31 billion dollars.^[42] The value of music on phones was worth 9.3 billion dollars in 2007 and gaming was worth over 5 billion dollars in 2007.^[43]

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?]}

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).

Sharing

In some parts of the world, mobile phone sharing is common. It is prevalent in urban India, as families and groups of friends often share one or more mobiles among their members. There are obvious economic benefits, but often familial customs and traditional gender roles play a part.^[44] For example, in Burkina Faso, it is not uncommon for a village to have access to only one mobile phone. The phone is typically owned by a person who is not natively from the village, such as a teacher or missionary, but it is expected that other members of the village are allowed to use the cell phone to make necessary calls.^[45]

Whilst driving

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 handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone; others —including the UK, France, and many U.S. states—ban handheld phone use only, allowing hands-free use.

Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials in distinguishing one usage from another as drivers use their devices. This is more apparent in those countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather those who have banned handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally on a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device for a legal purpose such as the phone’s incorporated controls for car stereo or satnav.

A recently published study has reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety.^[46]

In 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.

Tracking and privacy

Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, 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.^[47][48]

The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their government. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked.^[49]

China has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.^[50] In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobiles to perform surveillance. They possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely in order to listen to conversations that take place near to the person who holds the phone.^[51][52]

Health effects

The effect mobile phone radiation has on human health is the subject of recent interest and study, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals and in humans, of which the majority shows no definite causative relationship between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones, although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation.

On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization confirmed that mobile phone use may represent a long-term health risk^[53][54], classifying mobile phone radiation as a «carcinogenic hazard» and «possibly carcinogenic to humans» after a team of scientists reviewed peer-review studies on cell phone safety.^[55] One study of past cell phone use cited in the report showed a «40% increased risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period).»^[56] This is a reversal from their prior position that cancer was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no convincing evidence for other health effects.^[54][57] Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of cell phones especially by minors due to health risk uncertainties.^[58]

At least some recent studies have found an association between cell phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years “approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same (‘ipsilateral’) side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use.”^[59]

In addition, a mobile phone can spread infectious diseases by its frequent contact with hands. One study came to the result that pathogenic bacteria are present on approximately 40% of mobile phones belonging to patients in a hospital, and on approximately 20% of mobile phones belonging to hospital staff.^[60]

Future evolution: Broadband Fourth generation (4G)

Main articles: 4G and 5G

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^[61]

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.

In March 2011, KT from South Korea announced that they has expanded its high-speed wireless broadband network by 4G WiBro cover 85 percent of the population. It is the largest broadband network covered in the world, followed by Japan and US with 70 percent and 36 percent respectively.^[62]

In early 2011, 4G mobile phones were released by Motorola, HTC and Samsung.^[63]

See also

Car phone Cordless telephone Customer proprietary network information Field telephone IP Phone List of best-selling mobile phones List of countries by number of mobile phones in use Mobile broadband Mobile Internet device (MID)

Nomophobia OpenBTS Personal Handy-phone System Prepaid mobile phone Professional Mobile Radio Satellite phone Tethering

References

Further reading

External links

• How Cell Phones Work at HowStuffWorks
• «The Long Odyssey of the Cell Phone», 15 photos with captions from Time magazine
• Cell Phone, the ring heard around the world—a video documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Mobile Phone Definition

Mobile phone is a portable is something that has mobility or is not fixed or still. The idea can also be used in a symbolic sense to refer to what moves or drives something.

In the field of art, a hanging sculpture is known as mobile, whose movement may be due to the air or the action of an engine. Marcel Duchamp suggested the term in 1932.

In physics, a mobile is a body that is in motion. It allows the forces acting on it and their trajectory to being analyzed.

A mobile can be a toy for children under five months, consisting of a stick with different ornaments or figures. These figures, of different colors, move thanks to the air currents or the impulse that someone gives them.

Uses of a mobile phone

The list of the ten most ordinary mobile phone uses today:

• Calls
• SMS messages
• Photos
• Listen to music
• Personal organizer
• To blog
• IM, instant messages
• To visit the internet

And also, these are some of the ten most anticipated future uses of the mobile phone:

• With more storage capacity, store permanent files (always)
• Mobile personalization, not only with music and icons but even the operating system (ever)
• A convergence of several products, such as telephone, cameras, MP3s (1-2 years)
• Internet services (1-3 years)
• Watch TV and video (1-3 years)
• Betting and online games (2-4 years)
• Location services – GPS (2-4 years)
• Payments and financial transfers (5-10 years)
• The personal electronic key, ex. to open doors, etc. (5-7 years old)
• Identification, ex. maintaining personal information such as medical and carnets (10-15 years)

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Most common mobile uses

Most of this data traffic generated in applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, in addition to the Internet browser and the email system. These are the ten free utilities we use the most, according to Adobe:

Another of the services that are also used a lot is the alarm or the alarm clock. It has caused us to abandon the classic alarm clocks.

Less common uses of the mobile

Most people perform the same actions, but more mobile utilities are not as well known. These are the most interesting:

Emulator of old consoles: We found emulators like PPSSPP to be able to play PSP games or as SuperRetro16 for those of Super Nintendo. Some can emulate even the most modern consoles like the Wii or the Game Cube, this is the case of Dolphin, but we must say that you need to have a high-end mobile to enjoy it.

WIFI

The phones with the Android and iOS operating systems have a function called «Internet sharing,« with which we can give the Internet to our computer tower without buying any device.

Compass and level: All current mobiles have these two characteristics: they can be beneficial in the field or the case of the standard in the carpentry.

PC

If we buy an OTG cable, we can connect to our terminal a keyboard, and mouse to be able to use it as if it were a PC.

Mobile Phone Features

A mobile phone is also known as a cell phone. It is one that lacks cables and can be moved without any inconvenience in communication. The operation of this type of telephone is given by radio waves that allow you to access the antennas that make up the mobile phone network.

In this area, it should be stressed that currently the sector of these mobile phones is growing a lot and experiencing a wide range of advances. Thus, we can establish that these communication devices have now become something else. And it is that through them we can also entertain with various games, inform ourselves of the news, update our social networks, or even manage the home automation of our home.

All this is achieved thanks to a series of applications that are housed in a series of “markets” where you can purchase them either for free or by paying amounts that will depend on the value of these applications.

In this way, today within the mobile telephony sector we can say that the concept of the smartphone has emerged, which is that thanks to which we can perform the actions mentioned above and many more, in addition to the usual and frequent ones such as calls and text messages.

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• Afrikaans: selfoon (af), sellulêre telefoon
• Albanian: telefon celular m
• Amharic: ነፋስ ስልክ (näfas səlk), ተንቀሳቃሽ ስልክ (tänḳäsaḳaš səlk), ሞባይል ስልክ (mobayl səlk)
• Arabic: جَوَّال‎ (ar) m (jawwāl), هَاتِف مَحْمُول‎ (ar) m (hātif maḥmūl), هَاتِف خَلَوِيّ‎ m (hātif ḵalawiyy), هَاتِف مُتَحَرَّك‎ m (hātif mutaḥarrak), هَاتِف النَّقَّال‎ m (hātif an-naqqāl), مُوبِيل‎ m (mūbīl)

  Hijazi Arabic: جَوَّال‎ m (jawwāl)

  Moroccan Arabic: بورطابل‎ m (burṭabl), تلفون‎ (tilifun)

• Armenian: բջջային հեռախոս (hy) (bǰǰayin heṙaxos), բջջային (hy) (bǰǰayin)
• Assamese: ম’বাইল ফোন (möbail phün)
• Azerbaijani: mobil telefon
• Bashkir: кеҫә телефоны (keθä telefonı)
• Basque: telefono mugikor, sakelako telefono, mobil
• Belarusian: мабі́льны тэлефо́н m (mabílʹny teljefón), со́тавы тэлефо́н m (sótavy teljefón), мабі́льнік m (mabílʹnik) (colloquial)
• Bengali: মোবাইল ফোন (mōbail phōn), মোবাইল (mōbail), মুঠোফোন (muṭhōphōn)
• Bulgarian: моби́лен телефо́н m (mobílen telefón), кле́тъчен телефо́н m (klétǎčen telefón), преноси́м телефо́н m (prenosím telefón), мобифо́н m (mobifón)
• Burmese: မိုဘိုင်းလ်ဖုန်း (muibhuing:lhpun:)
• Catalan: telèfon mòbil (ca) m, mòbil (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 手提電話／手提电话 (sau² tai⁴ din⁶ waa^6-2), 手機／手机 (sau² gei¹), 流動電話／流动电话 (lau⁴ dung⁶ din⁶ waa^6-2) (formal/technical), 大哥大 (daai⁶ go¹ daai⁶) (slang, dated)

  Dungan: шуҗи (šuži)

  Hakka: 手機仔／手机仔 (sú-kî-é), 行動電話／行动电话 (hàng-thung thien-fa, hàng-thûng thien-fa) (formal/technical)

  Mandarin: 手機／手机 (zh) (shǒujī), 手提電話／手提电话 (zh) (shǒutí diànhuà) (formal/technical), 移動電話／移动电话 (zh) (yídòng diànhuà) (mainland China, formal/technical), 行動電話／行动电话 (zh) (xíngdòng diànhuà) (Taiwan, formal/technical), 大哥大 (zh) (dàgēdà) (slang)

  Min Dong: 手機／手机 (chiū-gĭ)

  Min Nan: 手機仔／手机仔 (zh-min-nan) (chhiú-ki-á), 手機／手机 (chhiú-ki), 行動電話／行动电话 (hêng-tōng tiān-ōe) (formal/technical)

  Wu: 手機／手机 (seu ji)

• Cornish: klapkodh f, pellgowsel f, kellgowser m
• Czech: mobilní telefon (cs) m, mobil (cs) m
• Danish: mobiltelefon (da) c
• Dutch: mobiele telefoon m, gsm (nl), mobieltje (nl) n (colloquial, diminutive)
• Dzongkha: འགྲུལ་འཕྲིན། (‘Grul ‘phrin.), བརྒྱུད་འཕྲིན (brgyud ‘phrin)
• Esperanto: poŝtelefono (eo), poŝtelefono (eo)
• Estonian: mobiiltelefon (et)
• Faroese: fartelefon f
• Finnish: matkapuhelin (fi), kännykkä (fi), kapula (fi)
• French: téléphone mobile (fr) m, mobile (fr), (France) téléphone portable (fr) m portable (fr) m, (Belgium) GSM (fr) m (note: often used for mobile phones that are not technically GSM), (Canada) téléphone cellulaire (fr) m, cellulaire (fr) m, (colloquial), (Switzerland) natel (fr) m
• Galician: teléfono móbil m, móbil m
• Georgian: მობილური (mobiluri), მობილური ტელეფონი (mobiluri ṭeleponi)
• German: Mobiltelefon (de) n, Funktelefon n, Handy (de) n, (Switzerland) Natel (de) n
• Greek: κινητό τηλέφωνο (el) n (kinitó tiléfono), (colloquial) κινητό (el) n (kinitó)
• Greenlandic: mobili, oqarasuaat nassartariaq, oqarasuaat angallattagaq
• Gujarati: મોબાઈલ n (mobāīla), મોબાઇલ ફોન (mobāila phon)
• Hebrew: טֶלֶפוֹן סֶלוּלָרי‎ (he) m (telefon selulari), טלפון נייד / טֶלֶפוֹן נַיָּד‎ (he) m (telefon nayad)
• Hindi: मोबाइल फ़ोन m (mobāil fon), मोबाइल (hi) m (mobāil)
• Hungarian: mobiltelefon (hu), mobil (hu)
• Icelandic: farsími (is) m, gemsi (is) m, GSM-sími m
• Indonesian: telepon selular, telepon genggam (id), telepon seluler (id)
• Interlingua: telephono mobile
• Irish: guthán soghluaiste m, guthán póca m, fón póca m
• Italian: cellulare (it) m, telefono cellulare (it) m, telefono mobile m, telefonino (it) m, (Switzerland) natel (it) m
• Japanese: 携帯電話 (ja) (けいたいでんわ, keitai denwa), 携帯 (ja) (けいたい, keitai) (colloquial), セルホーン (seruhōn), セルフォン (serufon), モバイル (mobairu)
• Kalmyk: һар утцн (ğar uttsn)
• Kannada: ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಫೋನ್ (kn) (mobail phōn)
• Kazakh: ұялы телефон (ūäly telefon), қалта телефоны (qalta telefony), қалтафон (kk) (qaltafon) (colloquial), мобилді телефон (mobildı telefon)
• Khmer: ទូរសព្ទចល័ត (tuurĕəʼsap caʼlat)
• Korean: 휴대전화(携帶電話) (ko) (hyudaejeonhwa), 핸드폰 (ko) (haendeupon) (colloquial), 휴대폰 (ko) (hyudaepon) (colloquial), 손전화 (ko) (sonjeonhwa) (North Korea)
• Kriol: telefonn portab, portab, mobayl
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: مۆبایل‎ (mobayl)

  Northern Kurdish: telefona destan (ku) f, telefona berîkê (ku) f, telefona bêtêl (ku) f, telefona mobîl (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: кол телефон (ky) (kol telefon), уюлдук телефон (uyulduk telefon)
• Ladino: djep m, pélefon m
• Lao: ໂທລະສັບມືຖື (lo) (thō la sap mư̄ thư̄)
• Latin: tēlephōnum gestābile n, tēlephōnium gestābile n, tēlephōnum portātile n, tēlephōnium portātile n, tēlephōnum portābile n, tēlephōnium portābile n, tēlephōnulum n
• Latvian: mobilais tālrunis m, mobilais telefons m, mobilais m (colloquial)
• Lithuanian: mobilusis telefonas m
• Macedonian: мобилен телефо́н m (mobilen telefón), мобилен m (mobilen), преносен телефо́н m (prenosen telefón)
• Malay: telefon bimbit (ms)
• Malayalam: മൊബൈൽഫോൺ (mobailfōṇ), ജംഗമദൂരവാണി (jaṅgamadūravāṇi), ദൂരഭാഷണശ്രവണസഹായി (dūrabhāṣaṇaśravaṇasahāyi), സഞ്ചാരദൂരഭാഷിണി (sañcāradūrabhāṣiṇi), സെൽഫോൺ (selfōṇ)
• Maltese: mowbajl m, telefon ċellulari m, ċellulari m
• Maori: waea pūkoro
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гар утас (gar utas), хармаа дянхуа (xarmaa djanxua)

  Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠷ
  ᠣᠲᠠᠰᠤ (ɣar otasu), ᠬᠠᠷᠮᠠᠨ
  ᠳ᠋ᠢᠶᠠᠩᠬᠤᠸᠠ (qarman diyaŋquwa) (China)

• Nahuatl: ehecatlanonotzqui
• Navajo: biłńjoobałí, bił níjoobałí, bił níjooyisí, béésh bee haneʼé tʼóó naatʼáhígíí
• Norman: téléphône dé pouchette m
• Northern Sami: mobiilatelefovdna, giehtatelefovdna, mátketelefovdna
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mobiltelefon (no) m, mobil (no) m

  Nynorsk: mobiltelefon m, mobil m

• Occitan: telefòn mobil m
• Oriya: ମୋବାଇଲ ଫୋନ (mobailô phonô)
• Pashto: ګرځنده ټيلفون‎ m (garjanda ṭelefon)
• Persian: تلفن همراه‎ (fa) (telefon-e hamrâh), تلفن موبایل‎ (telefon-e mobâyl), موبایل‎ (fa) (mobâyl), گوشی همراه‎ (guši-ye hamrâh), گوشی موبایل‎ (guši-ye mobâyl), گوشی‎ (fa) (guši)
• Phalura: waarlís
• Polish: telefon (pl) m inan, telefon komórkowy (pl) m inan, (colloquial) komórka (pl) f
• Portuguese: telefone móvel m, telemóvel (pt) m, telefone celular (pt) m, celular (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਮੋਬਾਈਲ ਫ਼ੋਨ (mobāīla fon)
• Romanian: telefon mobil n, telefon celular (ro) n, mobil (ro) n, celular (ro) n
• Romansch: telefon mobil m
• Russian: моби́льный телефо́н (ru) m (mobílʹnyj telefón), со́товый телефо́н (ru) m (sótovyj telefón), моби́льник (ru) m (mobílʹnik) (colloquial), со́товый (ru) f (sótovyj) (colloquial), моби́ла (ru) f (mobíla) (slang)
• Scottish Gaelic: fòn-làimhe
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мо̀бител m, мо̏билан телѐфон m, мобилни телефон m

  Roman: mòbitel (sh) m, mȍbīlan telèfōn m, mobilni telefon (sh) m

• Sinhalese: ජංගම දුරකථනය (jaṁgama durakathanaya)
• Slovak: mobilný telefón m, mobil m
• Slovene: mobilni telefon m, prenosni telefon m
• Sotho: selfono
• Spanish: teléfono móvil, móvil (es) m (Spain), teléfono celular, celular (es) m (Hispanic/Latin America)
• Swahili: rununu (sw), simu ya mkononi
• Swedish: mobiltelefon (sv) c, mobil (sv) c, nalle (sv) c
• Tagalog: selepono, teleponong selular (tl), selpon (colloquial)
• Tajik: телефони ҳамроҳ (telefoni hamroh)
• Tamil: நகர்பேசி (nakarpēci), செல்லிடத் தொலைபேசி (celliṭat tolaipēci)
• Tatar: кесә телефоны (kesä telefonı)
• Telugu: చరవాణి (te) (caravāṇi), మొబైల్ ఫోన్ (mobail phōn)
• Thai: โทรศัพท์เคลื่อนที่ (th) (too-rá-sàp-klʉ̂ʉan-tîi), โทรศัพท์มือถือ (th) (too-rá-sàp-mʉʉ-tʉ̌ʉ), มือถือ (th) (mʉʉ-tʉ̌ʉ)
• Tibetan: ལག་ཐོག་ཁ་དཔར (lag thog kha dpar)
• Tok Pisin: mobail fon
• Turkish: cep telefonu (tr), cep (tr) (colloquial)
• Turkmen: ykjam telefon
• Ukrainian: мобі́льний телефо́н m (mobílʹnyj telefón), стільнико́вий телефо́н m (stilʹnykóvyj telefón), мобі́льник m (mobílʹnyk) (colloquial)
• Urdu: محمول‎ (mahmūl), موبائل فون‎ (mobāil fon), گشتی فون‎ (gashti fon), دستی فون‎ (dasti fon), دستی دور گو‎ (dasti dūr-go), دستی ہاتف‎ (dasti hātif), ہمراہ ہاتف‎ (humrāh hātif)
• Uyghur: يانفون‎ (yanfon)
• Uzbek: mobil telefon (uz)
• Vietnamese: điện thoại di động (vi) (電話移動), điện thoại cầm tay (電話擒𢬣), di động (vi)
• Volapük: telefonöm polovik
• Walloon: axhlåve (wa) m, mobilofone m, wizesse m, schoûtrece (wa) f, GSM m
• Welsh: ffôn symudol (cy) m
• Yakut: сиэп төлөппүөнэ (siep tölöppüöne)
• Yiddish: מאָביל טעלעפֿאָן‎ m (mobil telefon), מאָבילקע‎ f (mobilke), צעלקע‎ (tselke)
• Zhuang: soujgih
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can