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Mobile Phone
Mobile Phone
Siemens AX72.
A mobile phone (also known as a wireless phone, cell phone, or cellular telephone[1]) is a very
small portable radio telephone.
The mobile phone can be used to communicate over long distances without wires. It works by
communicating with a nearby base station (also called a "cell site") which connects it to the main
phone network. As the mobile phone moves around, if the mobile phone gets too far away from the
cell it is connected to, that cell sends a message to another cell to tell the new cell to take over the
call. This is called a "hand off," and the call continues with the new cell the phone is connected to.
The hand-off is done so well and carefully that the user will usually never even know that the call
was transferred to another cell.
As mobile phones became more popular, they began to cost less money, and more people could
afford them. Monthly plans became available for rates as low as US$30 or US$40 a month. Cell
phones have become so cheap to own that they have mostly replaced pay phones and phone
booths except for urban areas with many people.
Many mobile phones are "smartphones". As well as making voice calls, they can be used as
computers.
Contents
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1 History
2 Technology
3 Shapes
6 Smartphones
7 References
If you pay by contract you will pay the network money every month so that you can make
calls. Usually you can talk for a lot of time for the monthly fee, but if you do not use the
phone a lot you still pay the same money.
2. Pay as you use
If you pay as you use, you will pay for a fixed amount of call time credit which you then use
up when phoning people. Once the credit is used up you must buy some more to use the
phone. This can be cheaper if you do not use the phone a lot.
Some digital mobile phones need a separate microchip, called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM,
to work. The SIM has information like the phone number and payment account and this is needed to
make or receive calls. The SIM may be supplied by the same company as the phone, or a different
one. Sometimes you can change the network by using a SIM from another network, but some
companies do not want this to happen and they lock the phone so that you have to use their SIM.
This type of phone uses GSM signals.
The others have a special radio inside them that only makes phone calls when the phone is
activated. When someone buys a contract, the network gives them a code, that if they enter it into
the phone, the phone will then make calls. It is almost always impossible to switch to a different
network's code on this type of phone. This type of phone is called CDMA.
Jump up Ulyseas, Mark (2008-01-18). "Of Cigarettes and Cellphones". The Bali Times.
Retrieved 2008-02-24.
Category:
Mobile phones