mobile phone culture

I removed the following sentence from culture:

I think we should have this kind of info in this section. I would like to see a source reference first though so we can check and potentially expand with other related info ChrisUK 21:57, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Substantial new material to be edited

The following text was pasted into the article. I think that it needs a rewrite and cutting down in order to merge better with the rest of the article. I propose we do it here and paste back in when ready. ChrisUK 6 July 2005 22:43 (UTC)

New text

Though mobile phones vary significantly from Telecom Company to Telecom Company, and even nation to nation (most noticeably the United States,) all mobile phones, and the other technologies that support them must generally accomplish the same tasks, regardless of the technology that drives them.

Mobile phones must be connected to the system of land-line phones in order to be not only useful, (so that land-line telephones can contact mobile phones, and vice-versa,) but so that two mobile phones can also connect with each other just as easily.

Consequently, all mobile phone systems are (somewhat abstractly,) comprised of two components; the handset, and the tower.

The handset is the portable, and typcially phone-shaped device. The tower is a high-yield radio tower that the mobile phones direct their radio communications toward for routing to their destination.

The handsets feature a (comparatively) low power transceiver that is typically designed to transmit either digital audio, or analog audio only up to a few kilometers (under ideal situations,) to where the tower is (also ideally) located.

The handset generally seeks out an available tower, informs that tower of its unique identifier, and alerts the mobile phone network that the it is ready and standing-by to receive (and send) telephone calls. It then periodically repeats this information to the tower, as well as seeks out new towers, over the duration it is powered on.

This is called “Stand By,” though no active calls are being made, the phone is simply informing the mobile phone network that it is available. This time is considered to be “standby time” when comparing mobile phone battery lifespan, because the phone does consume power to keep this minimalist “I’m alive” dialog with the mobile phone provider.

Towers are radio towers that feature a series of high power radio transmitters designed to broadcast both their presence and other information the mobile phones can use to determine if it can utilize that tower, as well as the actual conversations and other data.

This is one reason mobile telephone service is considered to be so sporadic in rural areas. Though a tower has the power to broadcast its presence much further than a mobile phone can, the mobile phone might perceive the tower in communications range, but not have enough power to establish a communications dialog with the tower.

In other words; the tower can be heard, but the phone isn’t loud enough to shout back to the tower.

The tower itself is connected to the landline telephone infrastructure by a high-capacity phone line, and may also be connected to a dedicated data line (and/or both depending on the technology.)

The tower can then route calls between the mobile handsets its serving, and telephone calls over the landline. Because the tower tracks what mobile handsets it is servicing, and informs the mobile network provider of this information; at any given time a call to a mobile phone can quickly be traced to the appropriate tower that will broadcast the conversation to the handset.

However, if the handset is not on the network (powered off, out of service area, etc) the call is either routed to voicemail, or otherwise not connected, as that the mobile phone network cannot “find” the handset.

The connection to landlines ensures that a person on a landline can call a mobile number without worrying that the mobile phone is not directly connected to the land-line infrastructure vice-versa; a mobile user needn’t know or care that their mobile phone is only indirectly connected to the landlines; they can just make a phone call.

Towers have a finite capacity, that is to say, there are only so many mobile handsets it can service simultaneously. This limit comes from a wide variety of sources including governmental restrictions on EM communication, technological barriers in communication standards and other technological limitations. These problems are usually resolved by adding more towers (which, through various means negotiate the workload amongst themselves,) to handle more mobile handsets, as well as to expand the geography in which a mobile phone will work.

Rename Article

I think that the name of the article "Cell Phone" ought to be changed to "Cellular Telephone." As it is, "Cell Phone" sounds un-professional and depthless. The telephone is cellular in its operation--which isn't quite as clear from the word cell . Further, telephones are designed to send long-distance messages, which is what tele means ( far in Greek).

• I think a more relevant issue is that the accepted name to most English speakers (outside the US at any rate) is "mobile phone", and that cellular phones are logically a subset of mobile phones anyway. Haikupoet 03:13, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
  • It was at mobile phone until some anon copy/paste moved it here. Reverted back. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:04, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Topics from 2009

Mobile-phone article botched 20 days

12-Jan-2009: Currently Formerly, the name "cell phone" redirects redirected to article "mobile phone" which is often viciously hacked. The term "cell phone" is a major target-name for vandalism. Of course, multiple editors could not cope with the stampede of vandalism, and on 23Dec08, the article "mobile phone" was hacked and botched by an IP address, in a series of edits, to omit 6 whole sections of text about the features, applications and setup of cell phones. Next, additional hackings and advert-links were reverted for another 2 weeks. However, the prior vandalism went uncorrected for 20 days, as people could no longer cope with daily corrections to long complex articles. It is not always obvious how to merge old hacked text into an article with 3 weeks of new changes. -Wikid77 (talk) 02:26, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Limiting vandalism target-name

12-Jan-2009: The term "cell phone" is a major target-name for vandalism (similar to "search engine"). To limit the complexities of embedded vandalism, any target-name articles should be kept to a brief overview of the subject, which can be easily reverted & checked when vandalism is detected. For indepth coverage, spin-off articles should be linked as "see-also" entries, which can contain more detail without hiding frequent vandalism. Much like the total chaos of the search-engine articles, the redirection article "mobile phone" has become hideously hacked with numerous embedded problems by the stampede of vandalism, buried in a mass of detailed text. Although many people attempt to revert vandalism, it is easy to become overwhelmed trying to merge 3 weeks of changes with large sections of hacked text. Consequently, most broad-scale vandalism in large articles is fought by simply removing the whole sections of hacked text, period.

Instead, the article name "Cell phone" should be was re-converted from a redirection into an actual article, but as a short overview, to introduce the subject, with links to article "mobile phone" as low-profile links found by serious readers. Hacking of the article "cell phone" could continue, endlessly, but be more easily reverted by containing less text to scan & verify. Meanwhile, other spin-off articles, under less targeted names, could contain the massive details about the various cell-phone topics. With less (daily) vandalism to the large articles, then hackings can be more easily reverted, without the problem of cross-merging for all the other rapid vandalism. Simply put: Wikipedia can have large articles, and Wikipedia can have multi-vandalized articles, but Wikipedia cannot cope with large, multi-vandalized articles. The two must be kept separate: a vandalized target-name should be limited to containing a small article, not redirected into a large article. -Wikid77 (talk) 02:26, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• I was thinking people typed "cell phone", got redirected to "Mobile phone" and started vandalizing. However, with article "Cell phone" as separate now, it will be easier to see which article gets more hackings (such as "Jonnhy doez phonesex" & "Bush is teh gay" etc.).
• 11-Feb-2009: After 30 days, the article "Cell phone" was attracting daily vandalism in February 2009. The average in January 2009 had been hackings made about once every 2 days. See topic below: Rate of vandalism . -Wikid77 (talk) 12:07, 11 February 2009

Cell-phone article as overview

12-Jan-2009: I have converted the name "cell phone" (from being a February-2008 redirection to "mobile phone") into being an overview article with see-also links to article "mobile phone" . The term "cell phone" has been a target-name for vandalism. However, the term "mobile phone" has been accessed by Wikipe

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