MOBILE TECHNOLOGY How does a mobile phone work?

A mobile phone is a two-way radio.When you talk in to a mobile phone,it picks up the voice and converts the sound in to radiofrequency waves(a kind of electric current).These radiowaves travel through the air until they reach the nearby base station.The base station then sends the signal in to the telephone network(consisting of many towers that passes the signal on to the subsequent tower). On the other end when some one receives the call,the base station nearest to him has transmitted the signal to his phone,where the signals are changed back in to voice or data. This is the principle.But may be we can look in to the concept a little deeper.

What are radiofrequency waves?

Radiofrequency waves are electric currents that oscillate at radiofrequencies(3khz 300ghz).They are electromagnetic waves that do not require a conductor to propagate because they easily ionize the air,create a conductive path and move on.They travel at the speed of light.Due to their unbelievable speed,when guided through a conductor,they tend to flow along their surfaces(skin effect).Sometimes they even radiate off conductors.In human beings,these could sometimes cause superficial burns.

What is a telephone network?

A telephone network consists of many cells,each having atleast a transceiver known as base station or cell site.Thus the name cellular network.Frequency can also be reused in distant cells to avoid co-channel interference.Frequency allocation is computer controlled.

So what if a call is made to a landline number?

Whats the problem?All cell sites are connected to telephone exchanges,which inturn connect to the public telephone network.

What is a spectrum?
Spectrum stands for the bandwidth available for mobile phone communication.This is the property of the government and has to be purchased by the service providers usually through auctions.based on the amount of spectrum utilised we have the 1G,2G and 3G and even 4G in the future. Earlier using phones we could only send and recieve voice.Thats 1G. Then there was the 2G when we could transfer both voice and data.

Now there is 3G when we can transfer voice,data and video.3G occupies a wide portion of the spectrum making it very costly for the service providers and thereby for the users.

Technologies : TDMA Time Division Multiple Access.Its where the calls are divided in to time
slots and you need to book your call and wait for your time.Like the trunk calls.

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access.Its where calls are split in to

frequencies.Earlier an entire frequency was allotted between the caller and receiver which proved very wasteful.

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access.The calls are made in to codes usually 0s
and 1s.Operators using CDMA dont allow their users to change their phones.However CDMA are all set to roll out their R-UIM(Reuseable User Identification Module).

GSM Global Systems for Mobile Communications is the most widely used that
allows the user to change phones with the same number.All he has to do is just slide in the SIM card(Subscriber Identification Module) in to the new phone.The SIM card holds the information like the users number,contacts etc.,.Even in GSM,transmitted data is encrypted in terms of 0s and 1s. GPRS(General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE(Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Technologies) are recent technologies for wireless data services like internet where the EDGE technology is atleast 4 times faster than GPRS.