The First Mobile or Cellular Phone

NMT (Nordisk MobilTelefoni or Nordiska MobilTelefoni-gruppen, Nordic Mobile Telephone in English) is the first fully-automatic cellular phone system. It was specified by Nordic telecommunications administrations (PTTs) starting in 1970, and opened for service in 1981 as a response to the increasing congestion and heavy requirements of the manual mobile phone networks: ARP (150 MHz) in Finland and MTD (450 MHz) in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Östen Mäkitalo is considered as the father of this system, and of the cell phone.

NMT is based on analog technology (first generation or 1G) and two variants exist: NMT-450 and NMT-900. The numbers indicate the frequency bands uses. NMT-900 was introduced in 1986 because it carries more channels than the previous NMT-450 network.

The technical principles of NMT were ready by year 1973 and specifications for base stations were ready in 1977. The NMT specifications were free and open, allowing many companies to produce NMT hardware and pushing the prices down. The success of NMT meant a lot to Nokia (then Mobira) and Ericsson. Initial NMT phones were typical portable phones: one could definitely move them, but they were usually intended for car use. Latter-day models (such as Benefon's) were as small as 100 mm and weighed only about 100 grams.

The network was opened in Sweden and Norway in 1981, and in Denmark and Finland in 1982. Iceland joined in 1986. However, curiously for a mobile phone standard that has the word "Nordic" in it, the first commercial service was introduced in Saudi Arabia on September 1st 1981 to 1200 users, one month before Sweden. By 1985 the network had grown to 110,000 subscribers in Scandinavia, 63,300 in Norway alone, which made it the worlds largest mobile network at the time.

The NMT network has mainly been used in the Nordic countries, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Baltic countries and Russia but also in the Middle East and in Asia. The introduction of digital mobile networks such as GSM has reduced the popularity of NMT and some of the Nordic phone companies have suspended their NMT networks (e.g. Sonera's NMT network was suspended on December 31, 2002 in Finland). The NMT network (450 MHz) however has one big advantage over GSM which is the range; this advantage is valuable in big but sparsely populated countries such as Iceland. In Iceland, the GSM network reaches 98% of the country's population but only a small proportion of its land area. The NMT system however reaches most of the country and a lot of the surrounding waters, thus the network is popular with those traveling in the mountains and fishermen.

The cell sizes in an NMT network range from 2 km to 30 km. With smaller ranges the network can service more simultaneous callers; for example in a city the range can be kept short for better service. NMT used full duplex transmission, allowing for simultaneous receiving and transmission of voice. Car phone versions of NMT used transmission power of up to 15 watt (NMT-450) and 6 watt (NMT-900), handsets up to 1 watt. NMT had automatic switching (dialing) and handover of the call built into the standard from the beginning, which was not the case with most preceding car phone services, such as the Finnish ARP. Additionally, the NMT standard specified billing as well as national and international roaming.

A disadvantage of the original NMT specification is that voice traffic was not encrypted. So anyone willing to listen in would just have to buy a scanner and tune it to the correct frequency. As a result, some scanners have had the NMT bands "deleted" so they could not be accessed. This is not particularly effective as it isn't that hard to obtain a scanner that doesn't have these restrictions; it is also possible to re-program a scanner so that the "deleted" bands can be accessed. Later versions of the NMT specifications defined optional analog scrambling which was based on two-band audio frequency inversion. If both the base station and the mobile station supported scrambling, they could agree upon using it when initiating a phone call. Also, if two users had mobile stations (=mobile phones) supporting scrambling, they could turn it on during conversation even if the base stations didn't support it. In this case audio would be scrambled all the way between the two mobile stations. While the scrambling method was not at all as strong as encryption in newer digital phones, such as GSM, it did prevent casual listening with scanners. Scrambling is defined in NMT Doc 450-1: System Description (1999-03-23) and NMT Doc 450-3 and 900-3: Technical Specification for the Mobile Station (1995-10-04)'s Annex 26 v.1.1: Mobile Station with Speech Scrambling - Split Inversion Method (Optional) (1998-01-27).

NMT also supported a simple but robust integrated data transfer mode called DMS (Data and Messaging Service) or NMT-Text, which used the network's signaling channel for data transfer. Using DMS, also text messaging was possible between two NMT handsets before SMS service started in GSM, but this feature was never commercially available except in Russian and Polish NMT networks. - Another data transfer method was called NMT Mobidigi with transfer speeds of 380 bits per second. It required external equipment.

NMT signaling transfer speeds vary between 600 and 1200 bits per second, using FFSK (Fast Frequency Shift Keying) modulation. Signaling between the base station and the mobile station was implemented using the same RF channel that was used for audio, and using the 1200 bit/s FFSK modem. This caused the periodic short noise bursts, e.g. during handover, that were uniquely characteristic to NMT sound.

Refrences "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Mobile_Telephone"

Conditional Access System (CAS)

A conditional access system (CAS) is a system by which electronic transmission of digital media, especially satellite television signals through cable, is limited to subscribed clients. This is called conditional access. The signal is encrypted and is unavailable for unauthorised reception. A set-top box containing a conditional access module is required in the customer premises to receive and decrypt the signal.

A conditional access system comprises a combination of scrambling and encryption to prevent unauthorized reception. Scrambling is the process of rendering the sound, pictures and data unintelligible. Encryption is the process of protecting the secret keys that have to be transmitted with the scrambled signal in order for the descrambler to work. After descrambling, any defects on the sound and pictures should be imperceptible, i.e. the conditional access system should be transparent. The primary purpose of a conditional access system for broad-casting is to determine which individual receivers/set-top decoders shall be able to deliver particular programme services, or individual programmes, to the viewers.

An addressable system is defined under the provisions of the Act as follows:

"addressable system" means an electronic device or more than one electronic devices put in an integrated system through which signals of cable television network can be sent in encrypted or unencrypted form, which can be decoded by the device or devices at the premises of the subscriber within the limits of authorisation made, on the choice and request of such subscriber, by the cable operator to the subscriber;"

As per the provisions of the Act, the Government has issued notifications under which the Government has introduced Conditional Access System initially in certain parts of the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and in the entire city of Chennai.

The cable operators in these areas have been directed to make available set top boxes/ addressable system to the consumers on demand for accessing "pay channels", while the "free to air" channels could be aired in the current receivable mode, without a set top box. These set top boxes are of two kinds:

(i) Analog Set Top Box
(ii) Digital Set Top Box

The cable television subscribers in these areas can currently view free to air channels by making a payment of Rs.72/- per month to their local cable operator while for accessing pay channels they are required to buy a set top box from their cable operators and further make monthly payments for the pay channels that the subscriber wishes to watch apart from making a payment of Rs. 72/- for basic free to air services. The amount for pay channels would be Rs. 5 per channel.

CAS is now becoming a significant concern for major companies in the DVB-H market because broadcasters are looking to control the digital signals that they will be broadcasting.

References: www.corecentre.org/guest/focus/default.asp, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_access_system

-Mobile UK announces Blackberry 7130G

-Mobile and Research in Motion (RIM) have announced that the Blackberry 7130G will go on sale in the UK. With features such as a bright, high resolution colour LCD display that incorporates intelligent light sensing technology to automatically optimise screen lighting levels for indoor and outdoor viewing and the push based connectivity that Blackberry is famous for, RIM fans will be pleased to have the 7130G as an option to buy when they choose to upgrade their handsets. Blackberry was on Phoneyworld recently due to security concerns when a hacking code for Blackberry instruments was made public - and again when the latest Blackberry, the Blackberry 8100 was unveiled.

The 7130g will be available from T-Mobile UK for a price which will vary considerably depending on the plan but it can go from 0 upto £139.99. The BlackBerry 7130g features a re-engineered device platform and 64 MB flash memory, providing users with a highly responsive experience when browsing the web, viewing attachments and graphics, and running other mobile applications. The handset will also have 64 megabytes of flash memory , support for quad band GSM functionality (can be used on any GSM network around the world) as well as MP3 playback support. The handset will have dimensions of 115x56x18mm and a weight of 120 grams. While the chief strengths lie in messaging, even more so thanks to the suretype keyboard technology which makes it easier to type messages, this one like others of its kind does not have any support for memory cards. Chiefly meant for office users who would not carry if a phone would be able to carry their entire music collection, the 7130G has also been called as the 'Best Blackberry every from RIM' by users.

Waterproof Toughie Clamshell from Casio: G'zOne W42CA

The G'zOne series which usually contain toughies (durable under the worst possible conditions) have just had a latest addition; the W42CA. The W42CA is the first CDMA 1x WIN handset and we can safely assume that thus the first waterproof CDMA WIN phone. The best part about these toughies is that despite being usable everywhere, they still do not compromise on features or functions. The main display for example has a 240 x 320 pixell resolution and 65,000 colors. The sub display (outer one) ; two needed since it is a clamshell; is a simple monochrome display. The circular region around the sub display is made of a special material which absorbs light whenever possible and later glows in the dark.
The W42CA is also equipped with a 2 megapixel camera lens for taking images as well as videos. The handset has about 50 megabytes of memory built into it and additionally, more can be added by virtue of the micro SD card slot. The handset also has an interesting feature, an electronic compass (which is possible since the handset has GPS functionality). Hello Messenger and LISMO are also on the W42CA. LISMO is an online music service provided by au, a Japanese mobile phone brand run by KDDI, a Japanese telecommunication company. This service uses a mobile phone as a music player. This service was introduced on January 19, 2006, and the service began operating at the end of January in Japan. LISMO is short for au Listen Mobile service. Besides LISMO, there is a built-in music player which makes it possible to listen to songs directly from the SD card if they are so loaded. There is also a dictionary function to translate words from English to Japanese and vice-versa. The dictionary also teaches pronounciations of words.

The waterproof phone from Casio did bring back some other memories from our editorial team:
LG buys the Casio water proof / quake proof phone for Korean launch.

Some Specifications of the Casio G'zOne W42CA
Size : 117 × 53 × 29 mm
Weight : 155g
Talktime: 190 minutes
Standby: 240 hours

The handset will be available in a choice of orange and white colors. While one may feel that having a waterproof cell phone is simply a matter of showing off, it does become useful especially if one is caught unawares in the rainy season. Similarly useful for boat and yacht owners who like to be riding out in the rough weather.

The G'zOne series which usually contain toughies (durable under the worst possible conditions) have just had a latest addition; the W42CA. The W42CA is the first CDMA 1x WIN handset and we can safely assume that thus the first waterproof CDMA WIN phone. The best part about these toughies is that despite being usable everywhere, they still do not compromise on features or functions. The main display for example has a 240 x 320 pixell resolution and 65,000 colors. The sub display (outer one) ; two needed since it is a clamshell; is a simple monochrome display. The circular region around the sub display is made of a special material which absorbs light whenever possible and later glows in the dark.
The W42CA is also equipped with a 2 megapixel camera lens for taking images as well as videos. The handset has about 50 megabytes of memory built into it and additionally, more can be added by virtue of the micro SD card slot. The handset also has an interesting feature, an electronic compass (which is possible since the handset has GPS functionality). Hello Messenger and LISMO are also on the W42CA. LISMO is an online music service provided by au, a Japanese mobile phone brand run by KDDI, a Japanese telecommunication company. This service uses a mobile phone as a music player. This service was introduced on January 19, 2006, and the service began operating at the end of January in Japan. LISMO is short for au Listen Mobile service. Besides LISMO, there is a built-in music player which makes it possible to listen to songs directly from the SD card if they are so loaded. There is also a dictionary function to translate words from English to Japanese and vice-versa. The dictionary also teaches pronounciations of words.

The waterproof phone from Casio did bring back some other memories from our editorial team:
LG buys the Casio water proof / quake proof phone for Korean launch.

Some Specifications of the Casio G'zOne W42CA
Size : 117 × 53 × 29 mm
Weight : 155g
Talktime: 190 minutes
Standby: 240 hours

The handset will be available in a choice of orange and white colors. While one may feel that having a waterproof cell phone is simply a matter of showing off, it does become useful especially if one is caught unawares in the rainy season. Similarly useful for boat and yacht owners who like to be riding out in the rough weather.

Motorola i580 iDEN

Motorola has announced the Motorola i580, the newest iDEN handset to answer the call for an ultra-durable, stylish, fully equipped handset. It is the first rugged iDEN clam phone designed to meet strict military specifications for blowing rain, dust, shock and vibration and to be enhanced with an extensive multimedia experience, which includes Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, video and messaging. The phone’s durable design and rubber over mold can withstand even the toughest day on the job or the most demanding outdoor activities, for those who enjoy an active lifestyle. In addition, users can enjoy myriad “push-to” functions that make for a truly rewarding push-to-talk (PTT) experience.

“At Motorola, we constantly strive to deliver products that are as remarkable as their users -- whose lives are fast paced and demanding -- and the Motorola i580 is designed to live with them, through tough weather conditions or less than optimal treatment,” said Peter Aloumanis, director, U.S. Markets Division, Motorola’s iDEN Mobile Devices. “However, a durable (rugged) phone does not mean limited functionality; the many media and PTT features in the i580 undoubtedly will enhance the communications experience.”

Through its iDEN technology, Motorola continues to redefine PTT, and the i580 is no exception. Equipped with new “Push-To-Smart Replies” functionality, users can now respond to PTT calls with either a custom or preset text message, allowing PTT communication with other i580 users in situations where voice communication would be inappropriate, such as in meetings, libraries, etc.

The most complete ruggedized phone yet, the i580 contains features new to iDEN handsets, including:

Push-to-Smart Replies – Discretely send a text message using PTT, even in the most difficult to communicate times.
Push-to-Meet – Users can now create Datebook reminders on their iDEN handsets and send them to other i580 users via PTT.
Push-to-X (PTX) Manager – The PTX Manager Menu allows users to control all of the i580’s unique Push-To features from one, streamlined, intuitive menu.
Enhanced support for the visually impaired -- The i580’s Voice Playback functionality has a simulated voice to guide users through phone menus and through placing and receiving phone calls.
Front Ported Audio Support – The i580 is equipped with dual, frontal speakers, as opposed to the traditional single rear speaker.
New Lithium Ion Battery – Increased power packed into a compact design to support handset enhancements without a decrease in talk time.

The phone also has many of the features associated with Motorola’s iDEN technology, including Bluetooth, location-based services, Selective Dynamic Group Call (SDGC), MOTOTalk, support for expandable memory (Micro SD), integrated speakerphone, voice recorder, downloadable applications, and a two-way radio for instant communication at the touch of a button throughout the continental US, and to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina.

PhonePhlash - The powerfully bright answer to camera phones with weak or no flashes

There are 100 million cameraphones being used today, but less than 1 percent include a built-in flash. And unfortunately, even those built-in flashes are very weak because they are often added by manufacturers as an afterthought," said Dale Fox, director, Foxden Holdings and the inventor of Phlash. Come to think of it, he is probably right. There are a few phones whose flashes are admirable ; especially the latest SonyEricsson ones but the older handsets just had a little LED which was passed off as a flash. Fox promises that Phlash will be 12 times more powerful then built-in flashes and it will become extremely easy from now on to take photogrpahs in the darker areas such as restaurants, bars etc.

Measuring just over an inch wide, Phlash resembles a cute silver button that can either be stuck to the back of a cameraphone or hung from the phone via an included strap. To use, simply press on Phlash while pressing the 'capture' button on the cameraphone. Phlash emits an intense pulse of light. Phlash includes easily replaceable lithium coin-type batteries designed to provide hundreds of brief flash cycles.

"I sure could have used Phlash at the Bon Jovi concert I attended earlier this month," said Tamara Dull, a thirty-something living in Seattle. "Jon Bon Jovi spent a lot of time in the audience walking up and down the aisle next to my seat. I took nearly 30 photos of him with my new cameraphone and in every one of them he looks like a dark blob. None of my friends believe he was just a couple feet away from me."

Phlash is now available for $29.99 at www.phonephlash.com ; they even have a great money back offer if you are dis-satisfied with the product. Sounds like a good investment if you use your cell phone as a camera a lot of times. However do not expect your handst to get super natural powers with this product. They still want you to use it form no further then "two arm's length" away. Its optimal performance is expected at a distance of one meter.

phone gun!!

If you remember "Tommorow Never Dies" the Bond flick in which he controls his BMW with an Ericsson phone which was also capable of delivering a lethal shock. Well move over 007 here is the Cell phone gun, it looks like a normal in fact an ancient cell phone however it is a fully functional gun which fires .22 calibre rounds. Take a look at the video at how it is all done.

Though it may sound interesting it poses a serious security threat and has got law enforcement agencies all over the world baffled. It packs a lethal dose and can fire four rounds in succession, just by hitting keys 5, 6, 7 and 8 keys.

The guns are loaded by twisting the phone in half. The .22-caliber rounds fit into the top of the phone under the screen. The lower half, under the keyboard, holds the firing pins. The bullets fire through the antenna by pressing the keypad from numbers five to eight.

Airport authorities across Europe are implementing systems to X-ray all cell phones.
Oh and unlike 007 the phone does not work