How does a Cell phone work?

If you don't have a background in Electronics, Electrical, Software, Programming, Network engineering like I do then you might not know exactly how a cell phone works.

What I want to address here specifically is how making a call works because this is what most people are interested in. The technical details of the cell phone are usually less interesting for most people.

So, here goes.


There are two basic systems you need to make any cell phone work and there are two types of cell phones which now usually are described as a flip up or flip open non-smartphone and a smartphone. Most all cell phones used now (except Satellite phones) fit into this category.

1. you have to have contact with GPS Satellites
2. you have to be in range of one or more cell phone towers here on earth.

If you don't have either of these things no cell phone can work where you are located unless you have a satellite phone. If you have a satellite phone it should work anywhere you have clear line of sight to the satellites you are using to communicate through.

A Cell phone when you make a call is usually (when it is turned on) always in contact with likely 1 to 3 gps satellites. So, the locations of any cell phone on earth is known (at the very least by some computers every moment one is turned on).

So, with a cell phone turned on it is in contact with GPS satellites whether it is presently making a phone call or not. It likely (Pings) the satellite periodically to tell it where it is. It is through the GPS satellite that the world phone system locates the number you call. It seems instantaneous but it is not in reaiity. For example, when you make a call somewhere the gps locator might search the whole world for that phone. But, if it is turned off it can still leave a message if it is set up for that. So, when someone turns that phone on (if they do) they can retrieve that message.

So, when you are talking to someone anywhere on earth computers know exactly within 3 feet through longitude and latitude where those two or more phones talking are.

This is a simple explanation of how it all works. However, thousands of inventions had to be created and patented for all this to work right. Probably the most important in all these was the capacity to digitize sound.

Because before this voice could not be transmitted easily around the world because of the way it is transmitted over phone lines wouldn't work without the lines being used at all. But, once sound could be digitized it allowed this big breakthrough to happen to cell phones and smartphones. This started with the CD and DVD which allowed sound to be digitized. It wasn't as nice as Records on record players but it was cheap so it prospered because it was so cheap to reproduce.