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
is gphone real
There are rumours that Google is working on a phone let's look as some evidences to find out if they are true or not
A pervasive rumor suggests that Google operates a secret lab staffed with 100 engineers and led by former Apple executive, Andy Rubin, the designer of the Sidekick mobile gadget who now works for Google.
The U.K.'s Guardian reported late last year that Google held talks with Orange, the giant European carrier owned by France Telecom, on a "multibillion-dollar" deal involving a co-branded cell phone made by Taiwan's HTC.
Recently, someone claimed in an online post to have taken part in a market research survey in which he was asked questions about a possible Google phone made by Samsung. The poster says the phone bill for this device would be subsidized by advertising.
Google's top executive in Spain, Isabel Aguilera, told Noticias.com that "some of our engineers' time is dedicated to the development of a mobile phone," according to a translation on the Ars Technica Web site.
Nomura analyst Richard Windsor reportedly told clients last week that Google confirmed at CeBIT that it's working on a phone designed to "bringing Google to users who don't have a PC."
All that sounds pretty convincing. But other facts suggest that Google is not working on a handset:
Google spokeswoman Erin Fors said last week that Google remains "focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce."
Richard Kimber, an executive in Google's South-East Asia group, told The Australian Financial Review that, "At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone."
Vint Cerf, Internet legend and Google's chief Internet evangelist, said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that "becoming an equipment manufacturer is pretty far from our business model."
I think one reason why people believe Google phone rumors is that comparable Apple iPhone rumors circulated for years, and most turned out to be true.