Cambridge

READING
Adventures
The
Mobile
Continent
Chris Oxlade

band
White
 The
Mobile
Continent
by Chris Oxlade
Contents
The world of mobile phones 2

08.45
782%
What is a mobile phone?
1
P:oc-ct.ty Mobile phone networks 8

Paying for calls 12

Messenoer App Store
Sype YOurUe
Mobile phones in Africa 14
LINE A
LINE
The Mobile Continent 16
m
Video DA 8 20
FaceTime A continent connected
Evwo Phone
trains p f 26
69
Facebock
More and more mobiles
Sateri Did you know? 28
30
Glossary
Index 31

CAMBRIDGE UCL
UNIVERSITY PRESS Institute of Education
The world of nobile phoneS
Many people have mobile phones.
Perhaps they just make phone calls
and send messages to their relatives
and friends. They might use their
mobile phones in other ways, too.

2
AE
What do mobiles phones do?
Modern mobile phones are
amazing machines that do many
different jobs. People use them for
ralking to other people, for sending
messages, for taking photographs
and videos, for listening to music,
and for connecting to the Internet.

3
A mobile phone is an electronic device.
The word 'mobile' in 'mobile phone' means thar
the phone can be carried around.
It doesn't need to be connected
to other phones with wires.
It uses radio instead.

All mobile phones need a SIM card like this.

The card contains the information the phone
needs to connect to other phones.

4
Simple mobiles

phones can make phone calls

Simple mobile also play music
messages. They
and send text
and take photographs.
keyboard for
inputting numbers
and text
SCreen
microphone
to speak into
battery
def

6
2 abc mno
Wyz9
jk
US
8 tuv
ghi
4
7pqrs

carphone socket

speaker for
making sound on / off button

parts of a simple mobile phone.

These are the 5
Smartphones
that is like a mini
mobile phone
A smartphone is a lots more jobs than a simple
computer. It can do expensive to buy.
mobile phone, but it is more
touchscreen. People use their
Smartphones have a
choose items on the screen and type in
hingers to
numbers and text.
camera

SAMSUNG

31% 01:59

01:59
Tue, May 27

SAMSNG

touchscreen on/off switch

microphone speaker
Swipe screen to unlock
calls only No SIM ca

home button

These are the

the parts of a
6 smartphone.
 computer program that works
An app is a thousands of apps
On a smartphone.
There are
smartphones do all sorts of different jobs.
that make
popular apps are for sending e-mails,
The most and for
websites, for playing games,
for looking at
navigation (finding the way).

08:45
@1 82%
1
Productivity

Messenger9
App Store Skype
LINE YouTube
LINe
TVThalland

Inatagram Video D/L

FaceTime
8
Google
duwn iPhone
tralns.Jp Facebook
59

Safar

7
Mobile networks
connects mobile phones to each other
Amobile network
network also connects mobile phones to fixed-line
The
telephones, and connects smartphones to the Internet.

signal from aerial

mobile network cell

signal from
mobile phone

8
Mobile aerials

Radio aerials are part of

a amobile network. They
are
found in many places.
When someone talks into
a mobile phone, the sound
of their voice is turned into
invisible radio waves that spread
out from the phone.
The waves are called a signal.
Aradio aerial detects the signal.
The aerial could be at the top
of a tall tower, or on top of
a high building.
a
Mobile cells
area are connected
in one
All themobile phones The area is called
signals.
same aerial by radio
to the phones are also often called
a cell. This is why mobile
cell' phones.

aerial

Phone 1

10
 mobile phone network is made up of lots of cells,
A
each with its own aerial. The aerials are connected
to cach other, by radio or by underground cables.
A phone in one cell can connect to a phone in
another cell.

cell phone
switching centre

Phone 2
Paying for callS
calls, send texts and find
P'eople pay to make phone mobile phone.
information from the Internet on a
mobile phone network measure how
Computers in a
long people talk for, how many text messages they send
and how much Internet data they use. The computers
calculate how much money they spend.

VENTAS AL POR MAYOR YAL DETAL

CELLULAR CENTER
Móvil CELULAR EKSA
Venta de Accesorios de Celulares y
CELULARES- ACCESORIOS-REPARACIONES
NOKIA 4A MOTOROLA
Electrónica, Reparaciones, Tajetas Prepago, Desbl
Anasonic SIEMENS ERICSSON Tel: 213-04531213-454

12
How to add credit

Money, called credit, is put on a mobile phone.

be
When it runs out of money, no more calls can
made. Many people buy credit only when they need it.
This is called pay-as-you-go.

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13
 Mobile phonesin Africd
invented, all phones were
Before mobile phones were are connected
fixed-line phones. Fixed-line phones
together by wires.
around the world most people
In many countries homes and offices.
have fixed-line phones in their
are very few
But in many African countries there
fixed-line phones. This means that a lot of people
invented.
never had a phone before mobile phones were
New mobile phone networks in Africa mean that
most people can now have a phone.
Mobile subscribers (in millions)
Population (in millions)
1200

900

600

300

2000 2005 2010 2015

Thic chart shows how mobile phone subscriptions
have grown in Africa since the year 2000.
14
 The Mobile COntinent"
Mobile phones are popular everywhere in the continent
of Africa. By 2015, more than 600 million Africans
owned a mobile phone. That's more than one for every
two people who live in Africa.

16
There are now many more mobile phones in Africa
than there are fixed, 'landline phones. Today, most
Africans have never used a fixed-line phone, and
a mobile phone is the first sort of phone they ever se.
Africa is sometimes known as the 'mobile' continent.
 Crossingbarriers
Africa is a huge continent. It has high mountain ranges,
and vast deserts. There are dense jungles and big rivers.
It is hard to connect the network aerials in
different places.

desert

river

rivers
mountains

jungle deep valleys

lakes
The mobile phone companies have connected countries
cables.
around Africa's coastline with undersea
connected remote places with satellites,
They have
radio masts, and optical cables under the ground.