A cell phone, mobile phone or cell, sometimes shortened to just cell or simply mobile, is a hand-held mobile telephone that generally can make and receive phone calls on a conventional radio frequency signal while the user is traveling in a calling area. Cell phones are increasingly becoming an important part of our lives; more people own at least one cell than have landline telephones. As well, the cost of basic cell phones has fallen dramatically as the technology for making them more efficient and smaller has become widely available.

There are many types of mobiles. The market includes mini-talkers which have limited capacity and make calls under a specific time period; hand held mobile phones which are more compact and capable of sending and receiving voice mail; PDA’s or personal digital assistants which can perform more than one function; pay as you go mobile phones that are used like mobile phone cards and have a contract with the service provider; and Internet telephony, where the user makes calls by connecting a modem to the Internet. These different types of mobile phones often come with various options and choices. For example, a PDA can allow you to make calls, send text messages and store and retrieve telephone numbers, and may come with a camera or other special feature.

Mobile phones work through the use of cell phone networks and the facilities provided by the cell phone companies. The facilities include data transmission over networks and switching channels to and from the main wireless carriers. In order for your call to be completed, it needs to cross from the main wireless carrier network to the cell phone network. This is done using the main radio networks (GSM) and the CDMA networks (GPRS). The technology used by cell phones to transmit and receive phone calls is called GSM /GPRS.