10 Interesting Facts About Cell Phones
Cell phones are device which important for anyone. In today’s world, a cell phone does much more than make calls. It can be an alarm clock, GPS unit, MP3 player, personal assistant, and provide the entire Internet in the palm of your hand. Obviously, cell phone technologies has been constantly changing to offer brand new cell phones. Unfortunately, the changing also provide a higher demand for cell phone reuse and recycling.
I tried to find more information about the cell phone development last night. I found a lot of information, and in this post I only inform 10 more interesting facts about cell phones.
1. The wireless telephone technologies are grouped under heads known as generations, starting from zero generation or 0G. The current generation going on is 4G; however, there are old cell phones (telefone celular) that still operate on 1G, 2G, and 3G technologies.
2. The impact of cell phone usage on human health has been of considerable worldwide concern. Research studies in Copenhagen, from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, the National Cancer Institute, and the Institute of Cancer Research, do not establish any link between cancer and cell phone usage. However, an intergovernmental agency IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) forming part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations, undertook a study of 4,500 users and found a statistically significant link between cell phone usage and tumor frequency. Further research is going on.
3. Nokia Corporation is currently the world`s largest manufacturer of cell phones. Other notable cell phone manufacturers, in alphabetical order, are 3G, Audiovox (now UT Starcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens, Fujitsu, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Kyocera, LG Mobile, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel, Philips, Research In Motion, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, T&A Alcatel, Toshiba, and Verizon.
4. The first practical cell phone in a non-vehicle setting, and which could be handheld, was invented by Martin Cooper, the General Manager (Communications Division) of Motorola, who made the world`s first handheld cell phone (telefone celular) call on April 3, 1973.
5. The power in a cell phone is obtained from rechargeable batteries, which can be recharged from the mains, a USB port or a cigarette lighter port in an automobile. Nickel Metal Hydride were the most common types of batteries, which due to the “memory effect” (the user can recharge only when the entire battery is drained off) were replaced by Lithium-Ion batteries, which did not suffer from any memory effect.
6. Cell phone coatings are often made of lead, and their lithium-ion batteries can explode if exposed to high temperatures or direct sunlight, which are common conditions in landfills.
7. The world’s largest cell phone recycler, ReCellular, collects 25,000 cell phones daily from more than 40,000 collection sites.
8. Cell phone usage and driving is a common worldwide phenomenon. Some jurisdictions have banned usage of hand-held phones during driving, but allowed the hands-free fashion of cell phone usage while driving. However, studies have found out that the distraction is caused by the conversation itself; hence, both hand-held and hands-free cell phones contribute towards road traffic accidents. Further studies on cell phone usage and driving are going on.
9. The cell phone works depends on the mobile phone operator; however, all of them use electromagnetic radio waves, which are in touch with a cell site (base station). The base station is composed of several antennas which are mounted on a pole, tower, or building.
10. Cell phones obsolete could reach 100 million cell phones obsolete. In 2007, the recycling rate for the cell phones was just 10 percent.