Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a handy technology that allows devices to talk to one another when close. As and example,
you may have Bluetooth on your phone, and when in the car use this to talk to the carphone without
having to plug in your phone.

EMS

EMS standard for Enhanced Messaging Service. It is system that has evolved from the standard SMS
messaging you my be used to, and allows standard ringtones and graphics to be sent to and between
phones.

GPRS

General Packet Radio Service. GPRS is a data upgrade for GSM networks, allowing a data transfer rate of
up to 115kps and always on availablity. Now being used for MMS multimedia messaging by some
networks.

MMS

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Servoce. MMS allows you to send colour images, graphics and
audio files like polyphonic ringtones along with your text messages.

Polyphonic

Polyphonic comes from the word polyphony, meaning "many sounds". Music that has many notes
sounding together, either in a chordal, or countrapuntal setting.

Polyphonic ringtones vary in specification from phone to phone, but all polyphonic phones support the
playing of more than one note together, so your ringtone is generally more musical.

On the downside, because the ringtones are played 'musically' they usually difficult to here in noisy
environments. Some manufacturers like Samsung have taken steps to improve this by making their
ringtones especially loud, whilst others like Sony Ericsson have retained the 'beep' ringtones in their T300
handset in addition to the polyphonic tones so you can choose.

RTTTL

Ring Tone Text Transfer Language.

A text format designed to allow people to save standard (non-polyphonic) ringtones. Used by most
internet sites for Nokia ringtones and by the Ringtone Converter so you can use RTTTL ringtones with
almost any make or model of phone.

SMAF (mmf)

Synthetic Mobile Music Application Format.

Used in some cell phones including phones from Samsung and Sharp for polyphonic ringtone support.
Filenames usually end in .mmf and are downloaded to the handset using a cable, IrDA or download by
wap.

WAP

Wireless Application Protocol. Wap is an agreed standard that allows your phone to access the Internet.
Supported by almost every modern phone.
Network terms...

Some terms are specific to the way the mobile phone network you are on works. These include:

AMPS

Advanced Mobile Phone Standard. Analogue format used widely in the USA.

CDMA

Code Division Multiple Access. CDMA is a a digital standard used in the USA, the Far East and Japan.
CDMA uses coding of the digital segments of calls, allowing networks to use space on channels over a
wide range of frequencies.

GSM

Global System for Mobile Communications. A digital cellular standard used throughout Europe and now
popular in most parts of the world. The standard uses three frequency bands, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz and
1900Mhz. In the UK GSM usually relates to the GSM900 band as this came first with Vodaphone and
Cellnet (now O2), see GSM1800 below.

GSM1800 / PCN / DCS1800

Various names for the same technology. GSM1800 is a digital standard using the 1800MHz band. In
Europe the GSM1800 band was added in most countries after the GSM900 slots very sold, and is used by
the newer providers like Orange and T-Mobile. Coverage used to be limited to major cities, however now
coverage is usually just as good, or in some cases better than the GSM900 networks.

PCS1900

Personal Communications System operating on the 1900Mh frequency. Yet another name for GSM1900,
used in the USA and Canada.

TDMA

Time Division Multiple Access. TDMA is a digital processing system that allows several phones to use the
same frequency. Each conversation is allocated a time slot so you only hear the conversation for a
fraction of each second, but as the gaps are very small you cannot usually notice.

Other popular jargon...

Analogue

The traditional way to send calls through the air to cell phones. Still used widely in areas where coverage
over large areas is required, however in most densely populated countries and locations analog has
generally replaced by digital phone networks which generally offer better clarity.

Caller Display (CLI)

Also know as CLI, or Calling Line Identification. Anyone with a digital mobile will know what caller display
is immediately, it used to be groundbreaking, but now it is commonplace. The CLI system allows the
user of a phone to see who is calling before choosing if they should accept or decline the call.

DECT
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication. DECT is a standard for cordless phones. We list it here as
some Sagem phones used a combined GSM and DECT setup to allow you to use your mobile phone at
home on your landline. It was a good idea, but unfortunately it dones look like it took off as recent
Sagem models do not seem to have the facility.

DECT uses 120 channels over 10 frequencies, and gives better quality calls than traditional analogue
home phones. Typically most DECT phones have a range of about 30 metres from their base station.

Digital

Digital is often banded about as a better alternative to Analogue. With a digital handset speech is
sampled to create a binary series of ones and noughts which can be transmitted, and then decoded at the
other end. The advantages of this to the network operator are immediate as more calls can be
compressed into the same amount of free air space, but their are advantages to the user as well. As less
data is flying, and the data can be corrected for errors, quality is improved, and additional services like
caller id and text messaging can also tag onto the messages.

Picture messaging is now starting to take off, and the next generation of digital mobile phones, known as
3G, should feature innovations like streaming video from one handset to another.

Dual Band / Triple Band

Dual and triple band phones started to appear in the late 90's when roaming started to become a realistic
proposition. Dual band phones usually allow your phone to work on networks in the GSM900 and
GSM1800 bands, allowing you to use your phone in most countries worldwide.

The exception is the USA, where you need a Triple band phone to roam as the GSM standard in the states
is GSM1900. Even then in remote areas you may find GSM1900 is not yet supported as the USA is a big
place, and GSM networks are better suited to densely populated areas, so if you are planning to roam
throughout the States you may be better buying a pre-pay package such as Virgin Mobile on a CDMA
network for more coverage than a triple band phone can offer at the time of writing.

EFR

EFR standard for Enhanced Full Rate. It is a voice coding system designed to improve the voice quality
on cell phones. For EFR to work it must be supported by the phone networkand your handset.

ETSI

The European Telecommunications Standard Institute. The ETSI wrote the specifications for GSM and
DECT.

HSCSD

High Speed Circuit Switched Data is an enhancement to standard GSM networks allowing higher data
speeds by combining data slots. Requires support by the network and phone, such as the Nokia card
phone.

IMEI

International Mobile Equipment Identity. A unique serial number for your phone.

J2ME
J2ME is a micro edition of Java 2 used for smaller devices with limited memory, such as mobile phones
and PDAs. It allows developers to write software for mobiles, expect to see great games on a mobile
near you very soon!

Roaming

Roaming allows you to use your mobile phone on other networks other than the one you pay. Usually
quite expensive, but very handy when you are on your holidays and want to make someone a little
jealous!

SIM (Card)

Subscriber Identity Module. The name for the small smart card used in your phone. Sim cards used to be
the same size as credit cards, but with shrinking phone sizes, the Sim was re-worked to a small card
about the size of a penny or cent. The Sim card stored your phone number.