Fundamentals of computers

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Mobile Phone Technology
One of the most important technology that has impacted mankind is the mobile phone.
Mobile phones can be carried easily and allows people to make and receive calls regardless
of distance and time as long as a telephone service network or satellite is available.
Nowadays, every adult member in a household owns a mobile phone and oftentimes more
than one unit. It has become a need for many people throughout the world because of its
ability to communicate with family, friends and business contacts. However, mobile phones
can do more than just calling. It has become more advanced especially when connected to the
internet because it can replace a laptop or personal computer. With a mobile phone, a person
can access emails, store data, take photographs, organize calendars and reminders, serve as
entertainment for games, listening and watching music and videos, functions as GPS and a lot
more. As such, mobiles phone is now considered as a major part of an everyday life. As the
future of technology is expected to increase and offer much more services than what it
provides today, it is interesting to review the background and history of how mobile phones
started, its functions and features and the possible challenges that this technology may face in
the future.
Going back to the period where mobile phones started to operate, it is important to
take note that the telephone system have already existed long years before mobile phones
were developed. The technology of mobile phone was a result of continuous improvement

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from the telephone system at that time. Elliot and Philips state that the development of mobile
and wireless phone technology was mainly used by government and military agencies in their
operation. Commonly called as “walkie-talkie”, the wireless and mobile communication
system started way back in 1930s during the Second World War using the analogue signals.
The technology started to be used in cars and public fixed network by 1946 when AT & T
Bell introduced the first commercial radio telephone service in US and in 1980s, a more
reliable wireless communication system called first generation or 1G has been established
(cited in Gorra 16). The early description of mobile handsets were bulky, heavy and
expensive. Oftentimes, it also needed a base unit that has to be carried with the gadget to
operate its connectivity. However, as years of development passed by, handsets became
smaller, thinner, more sophisticated and less expensive. Before 1990s, the second generation
or 2G started to operate with the digital cell phones. With the 2G technology, it allowed the
networks of mobile phones to provide services other than calling. People started to use their
mobile devices with new features of digital technology such as sending and receiving text
messages, graphics, picture messages and multimedia messages or MMS (Dan 2). At this
point of time, the industry of mobile phone experienced a huge increase in revenues and sales
because many people started to realize the convenience of having a mobile phone, creating a
demand for the product and services. Then, as expected, the third generation or 3G followed
and offered much more services such as GPRS, enhanced data rates and delivered faster
internet speed. With 3G technology the location of the handset is also easily tracked. The 4G
technology which was just introduced recently aimed to increase data transfer speeds during
internet browsing, downloading and uploading. Not only that, it has also enhanced the
security and reduced problems in transmission when a gadget moves between places to places
with different networks (3). From very basic services of communication, the different phases

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in the development of mobile phone provide a good background of how technological
processes can add value to enhance the system of communication around the world.
The mobile phone technology provide different functions that has already benefited
people and society for a long time. The idea of this technology was basically established for
making and receiving phone calls to communicate. Phone calls are important for most people
not only to stay connected or keeping in touch but also used as means of security. People feel
safer when they can call someone and tell them where they are and what they are doing. But
because of the capability of mobile phones to be connected to the internet, the technology has
more features enjoyed by many people. Chatterjee writes that the modern mobile phones
support many other applications such as email access, information browsing, text messaging,
MMS, business applications, games and photography, Bluetooth exchange and many other
services than the original idea of mobile phones back when it started (55). Nowadays, as it is
known, smart phones can even do computing. One of the most important feature that the
mobile phone technology can do is data storage. A mobile phone can store phone numbers,
address, messages and a lot more information (57). This is an important function that most
people need to help them organize their daily communication and activities. Apart from the
basic functions, mobile phones also serve as an object for leisure and entertainment. Gadgets
are now used to watch movies, listen to music, download photographs, chat and video call
with other people, access social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and
play games, among others (58). For business use, people turn to mobile phones to easily do
on line transactions. For example, bank industry has now on line services to provide their
customers with easy banking transactions. Most people use their mobile phones in accessing
their accounts, money transfers or even paying bills. On line transactions via mobile phones
can also buy and sell items such as booking of airline tickets and hotels (59). With internet

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connection on mobile phones, there are many features and services that can provide people
and society convenience and advantages.
Although mobile phones offer a lot of benefits to people and society, it has also
disadvantages and face a lot of challenges today. It is even projected to face more issued in
the future. Chatterjee states the social downsides of this technology including the risk factors
in phone radiation affecting human health. Several research studies on mobile phone usage
were done to assess if it is harmful to health because it uses electromagnetic radiation in the
microwave range (59). Although there were no definite conclusion to this, most people tend
to associate eye and hearing problems and also sleep disturbance to long exposure to mobile
phones. Second, the author also identified mobile phone addiction especially among
adolescents as one of the major challenge that the technology has created. People became
more dependent on the gadgets that affects personal time and social skills as a whole. Several
studies also link the negative effects of mobile phones in the academic performance of the
students (60). These social issues are not easily solved but efforts are done by society to call
for responsible technology usage and parental guide especially for kids and adolescents.
Probably in the future, usage of mobile phones set for restrictions to limit the usage according
to age bracket. On the technological side, Athow think that the major issues with mobile
phone technology aside from the safety of the gadget is the increasing demand for capability
such as connection data speed. Traffic in connection has been increasing in the last decade
and is expected to increase every year. People demands quality services from their network
providers for faster mobile services without interruption and with the current conditions,
people become frustrated when their needs are not met (1). However, technology never stop
to develop and with more research studies, this demand for faster services will be provided by
solutions by different service providers.

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The potential and opportunities brought by the mobile phone technology has
contributed enormously in the lives of people and society as a whole. The advances in
communication kept people from different parts of the world connected with each other and
provided a sense of security as well. The various activities and functions that a mobile phone
can do provide people fast service and convenience wherever they are. Although, it is
expected that in the future, more technological and social challenges will continue to arise. It
is also important to remind people to use this technology responsibly so that problems can be
lessen. On the other hand, the advancement in technology always provide many options to
help solve potential problems.

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Works Cited
Athow, Desire. “The most important challenges facing the mobile industry.” Techradar, 12
June 2014, http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/the-most-important-
challenges-facing-the-mobile-industry-1252880 Accessed 15 September 2016.
Chatterjee, Subhrajit. “A Sociological Outlook of Mobile Phone Use in Society.”
International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies, 2014, Vol 1,
No.6, 55-63, http://www.ijims.com/uploads/7f312a1489818ee30d4fz8.pdf Accessed
16 September 2016.
Dan, Cudjoe. “Review of Generations and Physics of Cellphone Technology.” Scientific and
Academic Publishing, 2014, pp 1-7,
http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijis.20140401.01.html Accessed 15 September 2016.
Gorra, Andrea. “An analysis of the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of
privacy and mobile phone location data - a grounded theory study.” Leedsbeckett
University, 2007, pp 14-85.