The cellular phone has become very popular today and most people cannot imagine what life would be without these very useful devices. Essentially, it is a device (variously described as mobile phone and wireless phone) that does not have a very long range though it is portable and is used for voice or even data communication (mobile). It works over networked base stations that are described as cell sites.

More Than Voice Functions

A cellular phone of course supports voice functions; but, it also provides other functions including SMS (short message service) as well as email and packet switching, gaming and Bluetooth. Some cellular phones even have built-in cameras and they can transfer MMS’s (Multimedia message Service) to share videos and photos.

Your cellular phone has to be connected to several cell sites which are in turn connected to public switched telephone networks or PSTNs. This is, however, not the case when satellite telephones are used.

In the year 1908 the US patent for cellular phones was issued in the name of Nathan B. Stubblefield for what he termed as a ‘cave radio’ telephone. The first cells that were later used in cellular phones were invented by an engineer working at Bell Labs, in 1947.

In the Second World War radio-phones have been used. They were invented by Reginald Fessenden. However, the hand-held cellular phone where used for the first time in the year 1973. Since then, the cellular phone has been rapidly deployed and mobile phone networks too have mushroomed as there was a low cost involvement. Today the cellular phone is much more popular than the conventional landline phones which were for a long time the main devices used for voice communication.

The cellular phone can not be compared to cordless telephone that is a simple radio handset and is a substitute for the wired phone handsets. The cordless phone is connected to a base station that in turn is hooked to conventional landline. The term cell phone can as well be used to describe your mobile phone, which when it is switched on, will register with a mobile telephone exchange through which it can then send and receive calls.

At present, the Finnish company Nokia is manufacturing the greatest amount of cellular phones with an estimated share of about forty percent of the global market for the year 2008.