The world's largest mobile phone operators (based on customer totals) include China Mobile, Vodafone, and China Unicom. In the United States it is currently Cingular Wireless containing around 52 million Customers.
Luxembourg has the highest mobile phone penetration rate in the world, at 164% in December 2005. The total number of mobile phone subscribers in the world was estimated at 2.14 billion in 2005. Around 80% of world's population have mobile phone coverage as of 2006. This figure is expected to increase to 90% by the year 2010.
At present, Africa has the largest growth rate of cellular subscribers in the world. African markets are expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets. The availability of Prepaid or pay as you go services, where the subscriber does not have to commit to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth on a monumental scale, not only in Africa but on other continents as well.
All European nations and most Asian and African nations have adopted GSM. In other countries, such as the United States, Australia, Japan, India and South Korea, legislation does not require any particular standard, and GSM coexists with other standards, such as CDMA and iDEN.
The world's largest mobile phone manufacturers are Audiovox, BenQ-Siemens, High Tech Computer Corporation,Fujitsu,Kyocera, 3G, LG, Motorola,NEC, i-mate, Nokia, Panasonic,Pantech Curitel,Philips, Sagem,Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens ,SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson,Alcatel, T-Mobile, and Toshiba.
NOKIA takes first place
MOBILE USERS /OPERATORS DEMOGRAPHY
History of MOBILE PHONES
The basic concept of cellular phones began in 1947 when researchers looked at crude mobile (car) phones and realized that by using small cells (range of service area) with frequency reuse could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially, however, the technology to do it was nonexistent.
Anything to do with broadcasting and sending a radio or television message out over the airwaves comes under a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation that a cellular phone is actually a type of two-way radio. In 1947, AT&T proposed that the FCC allocate a large number of radio spectrum frequencies so that wide-spread mobile phone service could become feasible and AT&T would have a incentive to research the new technology. We can partially blame the FCC for the gap between the concept of cellular phone service and it's availability to the public. Because of the FCC decision to limit the cellular phone frequencies in 1947, only twenty three cellular phone conversations could occur simultaneously in the same service area - not a market incentive for research.
The FCC reconsidered it's position in 1968, and stated "if the technology to build a better mobile phone service works, we will increase the cellular phone frequencies allocation, freeing the airwaves for more mobile phones." AT&T - Bell Labs proposed a cellular phone system to the FCC of many small, low-powered broadcast towers, each covering a 'cell' a few miles in radius, collectively covering a larger area. Each tower would use only a few of the total frequencies allocated to the cellular phone system, and as cars moved across the area their cellular phone calls would be passed from tower to tower. Radiophones have a long and varied history that stretches back to 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.
Martin Cooper is widely considered to be the inventor of the cell phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a cell phone in 1973. At the time he made his call, Cooper was working as Motorola's General Manager of its Communications Division. Motorola had developed the idea of using cellular communications on a portable platform (i.e., a handset)in a non-vehicle setting.
TO KNOW ABOUT MARTIN COOPER MARTIN COOPER CLICK HERE
WHAT IS CDMA TDMA
TDMA stands for Time division multiple access. It is a channel access method for shared medium networks.IT is digital transmission technology that allows a number of users to access a single radio-frequency (RF) channel without interference by allocating unique time slots to each user within each channel. The TDMA digital transmission scheme multiplexes three signals over a single channel. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different timeslots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using his own timeslot. This allows multiple stations to share the same transmission medium (e.g. radio frequency channel) while using only the part of its bandwidth they require. TDMA is used in the digital 2G cellular systems such as GSM, IS-136, PDC and iDEN, and in the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) . It is also used extensively in satellite systems, and combat-net radio systems. TDMA frame structure showing a data stream divided into frames and those frames divided into timeslots. The current TDMA standard for cellular divides a single channel into six time slots, with each signal using two slots, providing a 3 to 1 gain in capacity over advanced mobile-phone service (AMPS). Each caller is assigned a specific time slot for transmission.
TDMA is a type of Time-division multiplexing, with the special point that instead of having one transmitter connected to one receiver, there are multiple transmitters. In the case of the uplink from a mobile phone to a base station this becomes particularly difficult because the mobile phone can move around and vary the timing advance required to make its transmission match the gap in transmission from its peers.
CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, but was originally known as IS-95. Qualcomm was the first to created this technology and by 1993 it was adopted by the Telecommunication Industry Association. Later this technology was enhanced and refined by Ericsson.Since the development of CDMA technology there has been many new releases and platforms. The original CDMA is now referred to as CDMAone. Several different variants of CDMA technology been developed continuously improving quality and data transfer speeds. Third generation CDMA technology, commonly referred to as CDMA2000 encompasses a wide variety of different standards, each continually improving upon the first including; 1X EV, 1XEV-DO, and MC 3X. CDMA2000 is the current standard used by most US carriers today. The first release of CDMA2000 was refereed to as either 3G1X, 1XRTT, or 1X. Designed to provide data transmissions of ten times faster then the previous technology and double the voice capacity of CDMAone.Depending on the phone you have and its capabilities you will notice symbols in the default screen of your phone reading either 1X, 1XEV-DO or some variation of the two. This symbol defines the CDMA2000 standards your phone is operating on. Newer phones will display EV or EV-DO using the newer faster, more reliable CDMA technology. Enhanced data transfer provides for the new technologies released by companies like Verizon. Including data transfer for files, music, games and the Internet.
WCDMA technology, standing for Wideband Code Division Multiple access, is the most developed and advanced form of the third generation CDMA2000 technology. It encompasses higher data transfer rates and provides wireless connections in markets world wide. Many existing GSM 2G (GSM/GPRS) operators have slowly began the switch to using WCDMA technology.Qualcomm the original developer of CDMA owns patents of this technology. They have granted royalty-bearing licenses to over 100 network operators. The chart below displays the number of operators, vendors, subscribers and countries each technology is used in.
TO KNOW ABOUT GSM CLICK HERE CLICK HERE
WHAT IS GSM
Today there are two major standards for cell phone technology. CDMA and GSM. Almost all phones around the world operate on either of these networks. However, the average person tends to be unfamiliar with these terms. Common cell phone service providers like Verizon and Sprint use CDMA technology, while carriers like T-Mobile,Vodafone,China Mobile and Cingular operate on the GSM network.
GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications. It is one of the leading digital cellular systems. GSM uses narrowband TDMA, which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency. It was first introduced in 1991. As of the end of 1997, GSM service was available in more than 100 countries and has become the de facto standard in Europe and Asia.
Europeans quickly realized the disadvantages of each European country operating on their mobile network. It prevents cell phone use from country to country within Europe. With the emerging European Union and high travel volume between countries in Europe this was seen as a problem. Rectifying the situation the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) assembled a research group with intentions of researching the mobile phone system in Europe. This group was called Group Spécial Mobile (GSM).
For the next ten years the GSM group outlined standards, researched technology and designed a way to implement a pan-European mobile phone network. In 1989 work done by the GSM group was transferred to the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). The name GSM was transposed to name the type of service invented. The acronym GSM had been changed from Group Spécial Mobile to Global Systems Mobile Telecommunications.By April of 1991 commercial service of the GSM network had begun. Just a year and half later in 1993 there were already 36 GSM networks in over 22 countries. Several other countries were on the rise to adopt this new mobile phone network and participate in what was becoming a worldwide standard. At the same time, GSM also became widely used in the Middle East, South Africa and Australia.
While the European Union had developed a sophisticated digital cell phone system, the United States was still operating primarily on the old, analog AMPS network and TDMA. In the end of October 2001, Cingular was the first to announce their switch to the 3G GSM network. This involved switching more then 22 million customers from TDMA to GSM.In 2005 Cingular stopped new phone activation on the TDMA network and began only selling GSM service.
Today major operators on the GSM network include Cingular/AT&T, and T-Mobile. Other common carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint operate on CDMA networks. Most of the world external to the United States uses GSM technology. However, operate on different frequencies then the United States GSM phones.
TO KNOW ABOUT GSM NETWORK LAYOUT /SERVICE PROVIDER IN YOUR COUNTRY CLICK HERE
From the beginning, the planners of GSM wanted ISDN compatibility in services offered and control signaling used. The radio link imposed some limitations, however, since the standard ISDN bit rate of 64 Kbps could not be practically achieved.
The digital nature of GSM allows data, both synchronous and asynchronous data, to be transported as a bearer service to or from an ISDN terminal. The data rates supported by GSM are 300 bps, 600 bps, 1200 bps, 2400 bps, and 9600 bps.
The most basic teleservice supported by GSM is telephony. A unique feature of GSM compared to older analog systems is the Short Message Service (SMS). Supplementary services are provided on top of teleservices or bearer services, and include features such as international roaming, caller identification, call forwarding, call waiting, multiparty conversations, and barring of outgoing (international) calls, among others.
There are five major GSM frequencies that have become standard worldwide. They include
- GSM-900 and GSM-1800 are standards used mostly worldwide. It is the frequency European phones operate on as well as most of Asia and Australia.
- GSM-850 and GSM-1900 are primarily United States frequencies. They are also the standard for Canada GSM service and countries in Latin and South America. Most of the Cingular network operates on GSM 850, while much of T-Mobile operates at GSM-1900. T-Mobile however, has roaming agreements with Cingular. Meaning in the case of no service at GSM-1900, the phone will switch to GSM-850 and operate on Cingular’s network.
- GSM-400 is the least popular of the bunch and is rarely used. It is an older frequency that was used in Russia and Europe before GSM-900 and GSM-1800 became available. There is not many networks currently operating at this frequency.
Phones that work on gsm are
TO KNOW ABOUT CDMA /TDMA/WCDMA CLICK HERE
MOTOROLA Cooper
HE was born December 26, 1928 in Chicago. He is considered the inventor of the cell phone. Dr. Cooper is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm, a company that works on smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks. He holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.
A pioneer in the wireless communications industry, Martin Cooper conceived the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and led the 10-year process of bringing it to market. Cooper knew then that people needed the freedom that comes from anywhere, anytime telephony, in contrast to being tethered to a desk or a car. It is this same central focuson consumer freedom that drives Cooper’s vision of the wireless Internet.
Dr. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone in April 1973, to the bewilderment of the passer-byers in a road of New York. During 29 years with Motorola, Cooper built and managed both its paging and cellular businesses and served as Corporate Director of Research and Development. Products introduced by Cooper have had cumulative sales volume of more than $80 billion.
The first call he made was to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research.Cooper later revealed that watching Captain Kirk talk in his communicator on the tv-show Star Trek inspired him to research the mobile phone.
Upon leaving Motorola, Cooper co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it todominate the cellular billing industry with a 75 percent market share before selling it toCincinnati Bell. Cooper has been granted eight patents in the communications field andhas been widely published on various aspects of communications technology and onmanagement of research and development.
Under Cooper's leadership since its founding in 1992, ArrayComm, Inc. has grown from a seed-funded startup in San Jose, Calif., into the world leader in smart antenna technology. Today, ArrayComm is using its technology expertise, including 250 patents issued or pending, to develop and deploy the i-BURST mobile broadband wireless Internet access system. The i-BURST system offers a revolutionary Internet experience, combining the freedom of mobility with transmission speeds similar to a typical home broadband DSL line, all at prices competitive with today’s wireline connections.
Cooper received the American Computer Museum’s George R. Stibitz Computer & communications Pioneer Award in 2002.
He was an inaugural member of RCR's Wireless Hall of Fame.
Red Herring magazine named him one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2000.
Wireless Systems Design provided him with the 2002 Industry Leader award.
In 2003, Cooper received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his technological innovations in the communication field.
Past experience in the wireless field included working with Motorola to develop the first police radios
The world's largest mobile phone manufacturers
The world's largest mobile phone manufacturers
Audiovox, BenQ-Siemens,
High Tech Computer Corporation,
Fujitsu,Kyocera, 3G, LG, Motorola,
NEC, i-mate, Nokia, Panasonic,
Pantech Curitel,Philips, Sagem,
Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens ,
SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson,
Alcatel, T-Mobile, and Toshiba.
WHAT IS EMS
MMS stands for MULTIMEDIA MESAGING SERVICE. It is the evolution of Short Message Service(SMS) (SMS is a text-only messaging technology for mobile networks). With MMS, a mobile device is no longer confined to text-only messages. It can send and receive multimedia messages such as graphics, video and audio clips, and so on. It has been designed to work with mobile packet data services such as GPRS and 1x. MMS-enabled mobile phones enable subscribers to compose and send messages with one or more multimedia parts. Multimedia parts may include text,image,audio and video. These content types should conform to the MMS Standards.
For example your phone can send an MPEG-4 video in AVI format, but the other party who is receiving the MMS may not be able to interpret it. To avoid this, all mobiles should follow the standards defined by OMA.
MMS was originally developed within the Third-Generation Partnership Program (3GPP), a standards organization focused on standards for the GPRS/GSM networks. Since then, MMS has been deployed world-wide and across both GSM/GPRS and CDMA networks. MMS has also been standardized within the Third-Generation Partnership Program 2 (3GPP2), a standards organization focused on specifications for the CDMA networks. . Mobile phones with built-in or attached cameras, or with built-in MP3 players are very likely to also have an MMS messaging client -- a software program that interacts with the mobile subscriber to compose, address, send, receive, and view MMS messages.
EMS, also referred to as Enhanced Messaging Service. EMS is simply SMS with additional payload capabilities is a cross-industry collaboration between Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens and Alcatel, among others. EMS is a halfway house between SMS and MMS, providing some of the features of MMS. EMS is a technology that is designed to work with existing networks, but may ultimately be made obsolete by MMS.
EMS, an application-level extension to SMS for phones available on GSM, GPRS,TDMA and CDMA networks. An EMS enabled mobile phone can send and receive messages that have special text formatting ,animations, pictures, icons, sound effects and special ring tones.EMS messages that are sent to devices that do not support it will be displayed as SMS transmissions.
TO KNOW ABOUT SMS CLICK HERE
WHAT IS SMS
SMS stands for short message service. Simply put, it is a method of communication that sends text between cell phones, or from a PC or handheld to a cell phone. The "short" part refers to the maximum size of the text messages: 160 characters (letters, numbers or symbols in the Latin alphabet). For other alphabets, such as Chinese, the maximum SMS size is 70 characters. But how do SMS messages actually get to your phone?
If you have read How Cell Phones Work, you can actually see what is happening. Even if you are not talking on your cell phone, your phone is constantly sending and receiving information. It is talking to its cell phone tower over a pathway called a control channel. The reason for this chatter is so that the cell phone system knows which cell your phone is in, and so that your phone can change cells as you move around. Every so often, your phone and the tower will exchange a packet of data that lets both of them know that everything is OK.
Your phone also uses the control channel for call setup. When someone tries to call you, the tower sends your phone a message over the control channel that tells your phone to play its ring tone. The tower also gives your phone a pair of voice channel frequencies to use for the call. The control channel also provides the pathway for SMS messages. When a friend sends you an SMS message, the message flows through the SMSC, then to the tower, and the tower sends the message to your phone as a little packet of data on the control channel. In the same way, when you send a message, your phone sends it to the tower on the control channel and it goes from the tower to the SMSC and from there to its destination. The actual data format for the message includes things like the length of the message, a time stamp, the destination phone number, the format, etc. For a complete byte-by-byte breakdown of the message format, see this page.
History of sms
SMS was created during the late 1980s to work with a digital technology called GSM (global system for mobile communications), which is the basis for most modern cell phones. The Norwegian engineers who invented it wanted a very simple messaging system that worked when users' mobile phones were turned off or out of signal range. Most sources agree that the first SMS message was sent in the UK in 1992.As SMS was born in Europe, it's not surprising that it took a little longer to make its way to the United States . Even today, texting enjoys much greater popularity in Europe , though its stateside use is on the rise. A July 2005 study found that 37 percent of U.S. mobile phone owners had sent or received at least one text message in the previous month
WHY SMS IS ONLY 160 CHARACTERS ?
SMS was designed to deliver short bursts of data such as numerical pages. To avoid overloading the system with more than the standard forward-and-response operation, the inventors of SMS agreed on a 160-character maximum message size.But the 160-character limit is not absolute. Length limitations may vary depending on the network, phone model and wireless carrier. Some phones don't allow you to keep typing once the 160-character limit is reached. You must send your message before continuing. However, some services will automatically break any message you send into chunks of 160 characters or less. So, you can type and send a long message, but it will be delivered as several messages.
TO KNOW ABOUT EMS & MMS CLICK HERE
Make your smart phone smarter
During the past few years, the mobile phone has become so much more than a telephone. As PDAs such as the Palm Treo have merged with telephones, cell phones themselves have started acting like PDAs. Aside from the obvious address book and calendar, a common phone on the street might have a digital camera, an MP3 player, an instant messenger, and a GPS locating device.One of the most popular mobile-phone operating systems is Symbian, powering Nokia and Sony Ericsson models, among many others. In fact, the Symbian OS powers more than half of all mobile phones worldwide, and its CEO has predicted that it will eventually take over for PCs entirely.Regardless of what the future will bring, you can do tons of stuff with your Symbian smart phone right now. Watch videos, map directions, or use your favorite instant-messaging software. Jessica Dolcourt shows you how to get started with a new feature, How to make your Symbian phone smarter. If you're already a master of mobile software, be sure to tell us which software you use on your cell phone.
New software to track lost mobiles
There is good news for all of us,regarding the tracing of the lost cell phones.Isn't it amazing and interesting to know about? If this detective takes off, it will be more popular than Sherlock Holmes: a software to trace lost mobiles. Inspired to create a mobile-tracking solution after his 16-year-old son lost his cellphone, P Sekhar, chairman of Micro Technologies, began work on a programme to track phones. The code — downloadable at Rs 200-300 a year on most handsets from Micro’s website — allows the owner to track the exact location of his phone and the number of the new SIM card that has been inserted. As of now, the only action a subscriber can take is to frantically call the service provider and block his card.
He says: ‘‘A stolen phone is generally sold in the grey market. When a new SIM card is inserted, the solution embedded in the phone notifies the original owner of the new SIM card number and the location of the phone. Nine out of ten times, when the original caller calls the owner of the stolen phone, the third party returns the gadget.’’ Called the Lost Mobile Tracking Solution (LMTS), the e-sniffer which can track lost mobiles, is awaiting a patent. It was created with an investment of Rs 50 lakh, of which half has already been recovered in the four months of its launch in the Indian market. It would be safe to say that thousands of phones are stolen and lost in India every day, left behind in cabs, washrooms, restaurants and shops. In 2005, 20,000 cases of stolen mobiles (worth Rs 300 crore) were reported with the police. About eight crore mobile handsets were retailed in India in the same year.
Sekhar, who plans to market this solution worldwide , is in dialogue with five of the largest mobile manufacturers as well as the police, who say that lost mobile complaints are on the rise. He estimates that the market for such a solution could go up to Rs 30-40 crore within the next three years. The LMTS solution is currently restricted to GSM phones in which the SIM card is detachable. The solution is retailed in India through Micro Technologies’s large dealer and distribution networks and will soon be pushed through the mobile manufacturer route as well.
How to use the service
The basic requisite is possessing a smart phone with GPRS activated on it. Most telcos offer this service for a fixed fee every month You register online for LTMS at the Micro Technologies website. A user name and password is sent to you and you can download the software Once the software is activated, a link is sent to your phone. Clicking on the link leads you to a site where another piece of software is installed on your phone. Into this software, you type in the licence key.