Mobile Phones

A mobile or cellular telephone (commonly, "cell phone" or "mobile phone") is a long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception are satellite phones).

History of mobile phones

Mobile phones from various years, ranging from a large late 1980s-era phone to tiny 2000s phones.

The Mobile phone is one of the most used pieces of equipment today. The concept of using hexagonal cells for mobile phone base stations was invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and was further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history that stretches back to the Second World War when the military started to use radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, with hand-held cellular radio devices being available since 1983. Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony.