MOBILE

A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency carrier while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Most modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are often also called cellular telephones or cell phones. In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming, and digital photography. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

Making a call is now only the sixth most common use for a mobile phone, a study has found. Sending and receiving text messages, reading emails, browsing the internet and using the phone's alarm clock have all overtaken actual conversation.