Mobile Phone

The Mobile Web refers to the World Wide Web as accessed from mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and other portable gadgets connected to a public network. Access does not require a desktop computer.However, Mobile Web access today still suffers from interoperability and usability problems. This is partly due to the small physical size of the screens of mobile devices and partly due to the incompatibility of many mobile devices with not only computer operating systems, but also the format of much of the information available on the Internet.

Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and country to country. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic radio waves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building.The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, normally not more than 8 to 13 km (approximately 5 to 8 miles) away. When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations. As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will “handoff” to various cell sites during calls, or while waiting (idle) between calls it will reselect cell sites.Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. Many of these sites are camouflaged to blend with existing environments, particularly in scenic areas.The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digital data that includes digitized audio (except for the first generation analog networks). The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. The technologies are grouped by generation. The first-generation systems started in 1979 with Japan, are all analog and include AMPS and NMT. Second-generation systems, started in 1991 in Finland, are all digital and include GSM, CDMA and TDMA. Third-generation networks, which are still being deployed, started with Japan in 2001, are all digital, and offer high-speed data access in addition to voice services and include W-CDMA (known also as UMTS), and CDMA2000 EV-DO. China will launch a third 3G technlogy on the TD-SCDMA standard. Each network operator has a unique radio frequency band.

There are more than 500 million used mobile phones in the US sitting on shelves or in landfills, and another 125 million will be added to the shelves or landfills this year alone.The problem is growing at a rate of more than two million phones per week, putting tons of toxic waste into landfills daily. Several sites including United States top ranked TradeMyCell.com, ReCellular, and MyGreenElectronics offer to remedy to this situation by buying back and recycling mobile phones from users.

Like all high structures, cellular antenna masts pose a hazard to low flying aircraft. Towers over a certain height or towers that are close to airports or heliports are normally required to have warning lights. There have been reports that warning lights on cellular masts, TV-towers and other high structures can attract and confuse birds. US authorities estimate that millions of birds are killed near communication towers in the country each year.An example of the way mobile phones and mobile networks have sometimes been perceived as a threat is the widely reported and later discredited claim that mobile phone masts are associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which has reduced bee hive numbers by up to 75% in many areas, especially near cities in the US. The Independent newspaper cited a scientific study claiming it provided evidence for the theory that mobile phone masts are a major cause in the collapse of bee populations, with controlled experiments demonstrating a rapid and catastrophic effect on individual hives near masts.Mobile phones were in fact not covered in the study, and the original researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, mobile phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and created “a horror story”.While the initial claim of damage to bees was widely reported, the corrections to the story were almost non-existent in the media.

Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use. As mobile phone penetrations grew past fixed landline penetration levels in 1998 in Finland and from 1999 in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the Scandinavian health authorities have run continuous long term studies of effects of mobile phone radiation effects to humans, and in particular children. Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health. Studies from the Institute of Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute and researchers at the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen for example showed no link between mobile phone use and cancer.The Danish study only covered analog mobile phone usage up through 1995, and subjects who started mobile phone usage after 1995 were counted as non-users in the study.The health concerns have grown as mobile phone penetration rates throughout Europe reached 80%–90% levels earlier in this decade and prolonged exposure studies have been carried out in almost all European countries again most reporting no effect, and the most alarming studies only reporting a possible effect. However, a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of 4,500 users found a borderline statistically significant link between tumor frequency on the same side of the head as the mobile phone was used on and mobile phone usage.One study that reviewed the link between cellphones and sperm quality found that heavy mobile phone users (>4 hours per day) had significantly less viable sperm (WHO morphology score was less than half of the lower time mobile phone users).A prospective study of 13 normal men found that significantly increasing their mobile phone use (>6 hours each day for 5 days) caused a marked short-term reduction of sperm quality.Men, who use mobile phones on a regular basis lose about 30 percent of their active sperm cells. Those who carry their mobile phones in pockets of their pants are putting their potency at great danger. Scientists say that even in sleep mode mobile phones are harmful. This is considered to be a thermal effect, since the testes are vulnerable to heating by RF energy because of poor circulation and heat is known to have adverse effects on male fertility.Also the thermal from the mobile phone proliferates the bacteria on the key pad. By the study of some research, bacteria on the keypad is more serious and fatal to human health than does in the toilet. The eyes are the other part of the body known to be poor at dissipating heat. Experiments have shown that short duration exposure to very high levels of RF radiation can cause cataracts in rabbits. The non-thermal effects of RF radiation are an area of active study.A 2007 study by Prof. Bengt Arnetz and colleagues of Wayne State University and Uppsala University, and Foundation IT’IS, USA, and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum and published in “Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS) Online” reported higher incidence of headache and also disturbance of normal sleep patterns following mobile phone use.Early in 2008, Michele Froment-Vedrine the President of AFSSET (an independent but state-funded French health watchdog), advised that parents should not give small children mobile phones.Study of the University of Segeda, Hungary showed that mobile phones carried in pockets of pants and/or worn on belts could result in loss of quantity and quality of active sperm cells by men. This fact may not be true, especially in wealthier countries such as Australia, the UK, and the US.

There are significant questions as to who first invented the camera phone, as numerous other people received patents filed in the early 1990s for the device, including David M. Britz of AT&T Research in March of 1994 and Philippe Kahn, who claims to have first invented it in 1997.The camera phone now holds 85% of the mobile phone market. Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls, including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organizer functions, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and serve as a wireless modem for a PC, and soon will also serve as a console of sorts to online games and other high quality games (e.g. Final Fantasy Agito)

Mobile phones generally obtain power from batteries which can be recharged from mains power, a USB port or a cigarette lighter socket in a car. Formerly, the most common form of mobile phone batteries were nickel metal-hydride, as they have a low size and weight. Lithium-Ion batteries are sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not have the voltage depression that nickel metal-hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone manufacturers have now switched to using lithium-Polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-Ion, the main advantages of this being even lower weight and the possibility to make the battery a shape other than strict cuboid. Mobile phone manufacturers have been experimenting with alternate power sources, including solar cells.

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 telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in Sri Lanka. Companies like Monster re starting to offer mobile services such as job search and career advice. Consumer applications are on the rise and include everything from information guides on local activities and events to mobile coupons and discount offers one can use to save money on purchases. Even tools for creating websites for mobile phones are increasingly becoming available, e.g. Mobilemo.The total value of mobile data services exceeds the value of paid services on the internet, and was worth 31 billion dollars in 2006 (source Informa).The largest categories of mobile services are music, picture downloads, videogaming, adult entertainment, gambling, video/TV.

Mobile phone use while driving is common but controversial. Using a mobile phone while driving is an impediment to vehicle operation that can increase the risk of road traffic accidents, but different studies have found vastly different relative risks (RR). Two separate studies using case-crossover analysis each calculated RR at 4, while an epidemiological cohort study found RR, when adjusted for crash-risk exposure, of 1.11 for men and 1.21 for women.A widely publicized simulation study from the University of Utah Professor David Strayer compared drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% to those conversing on a cell phone, and after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. Meta-analysis by The Canadian Automobile Association and te University of Illinois bund that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving (i.e., an average driver, while talking on a cell phone, has response times of a driver in roughly the 40th percentile). Other research has found that using a mobile phone while driving may reduce the driver’s concentration and reaction time. People in or near their 20s who use a mobile phone while driving have the same reaction time as 70-year-olds. Studies have shown that talking on a phone can reduce the cognitive resources that the driver can apply to the driving task, and may thus lead to dangerous situations.Diving while using a hands-free device is not safer than driving while using a hand-held phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies. epidemiological studies, simulation studies,and meta-analysis Even with this information, the State of California recently passed a cell phone law that requires drivers over the age of 18 to use a hands-free device while using the phone in the car. Moreover, this law also restricts drivers under the age of 18 from using a mobile phone at all. This law goes into effect on July 1, 2008 with a $20 fine for the first offense and $50 fines for each subsequent conviction. The consistency of increased crash risk between hands-free and hand-held phone use is at odds with legislation in over 30 countries that prohibit hand-held phone use but allow hands-free. Scientific literature is mixed on the dangers of talking on a phone versus those of talking with a passenger, with the Accident Research Unit at the University of Nottingham finding that the number of utterances was usually higher for mobile calls when compared to blindfolded and non-blindfolded passengers,but the University of Illinois meta-analysis concluding that passenger conversations were just as costly to driving performance as cell phone ones.

As of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the aeroplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft’s base station.Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their travelling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. Qantas, the Australian airline, is the first airline to run a test aeroplane in this configuration in the autumn of 2007.Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.However in the past , commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the fact that the frequencies omitted from these devices may disturb the raido waves contact of the airplane.In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state “not until the doors are open” on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially grounded the idea of allowing passengers to use phones during a flight.In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.[citation needed] Most schools in the United States have prohibited mobile phones in the classroom, due to the large number of class disruptions that result from their use, and the potential for cheating via text messaging. In the UK, possession of a mobile phone in an examination can result in immediate disqualification from that subject or from all that student’s subjects.A working group, made up of Finnish telephone companies, public transport operators and communications authorities, have launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit – what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters.Many US cities with subway transit systems underground are studying or have implemented mobile phone reception in their underground tunnels for their riders. Boston, Massachusetts has investigated such usage in their tunnels, although there is a question of usage etiquette and also how to fairly award contracts to carriers.The issue of mobile communication and etiquette has also become an issue of academic interest. The rapid adoption of the device has resulted in the intrusion of telephony into situations where this was previously not known. This has exposed the implicit rules of courtesy and opened them to reevaluation.