How A Cell Phone Works & Understanding Its Range

Cell phones today have indeed replaced several other items as wallets as the essential commodity that people never leave home without. Cell phones have long surpassed the cordless phones and pagers as mobile communication technology. But ever wondered about the maximum range you can take your beloved cell phone before it starts losing out on the signals? While this is hard to believe for many but all the cell phone devices available in the market have a limited range beyond which they fail to catch the cell phone signals. The distance from the cell phone tower and the device also matters a lot when determining the signal strength. Nevertheless it is important for the consumers to know about this basic functioning of your most used commodity.

Image credit Tim Parkinson, CC BY 2.0

How Does a Cell Phone Function?

Technically speaking, cell phones are basically radio transponders that convert sound into radio waves. They send and receive radio waves via a cell phone signal tower installed by the service providers. Modern day smartphones take this functionality even a step further by sending text messages, allow the user to access internet services and convert all these into radio waves which are transmitted to the closest cell tower.

The Types of Cell Phone Services

While many modern day cell phone users already know about this, most old users are unaware of the fact that types of cell phone also make a huge difference on the transmission of the radio waves. There are two major standards of cell phone communications namely GSM and CDMA. The GSM standard limits the devices capability to transmit radio waves up to 35 kilometers and is universal among the cell phone users around Asia, Europe, the Americas and other continent. CDMA technology too has users distributed throughout the globe but more popular in North America. The CDMA users can enjoy transmission range almost double the distance of transfer by GSM standard.

Geographical Limitations

Cell phones are usually capable of transmitting radio waves across long distances and are only limited by either the type of transmission standards or because of the geographical location. If you reside or work around a mountainous terrain, the mountains can greatly limit the transmission capabilities of your cell phone. Similarly if you’re trying to use your cell phone near an area with dense concrete buildings and steel structures. A dense cover of trees and other leaf vegetation can also greatly limit the signal transmission capability of your cell phones.

How to Prevent Bad Cell Phone Reception?

Most cell phone carriers have acknowledged the problem of bad cell phone reception and bad signal coverage and have come up with a simple solution. Installing more cell phone towers can provide a more stable cellular service to the users. Customer satisfaction is one of the major principles that more and more corporations are offering to their customers and cell phone service providers have indeed joined the race. Cell towers are now being installed over tall concrete buildings so the signal doesn’t get barred by the steel and concrete structures. Several office buildings and public areas where cell phone signals cannot reach (parking areas and subways etc.); cell phone signal boosters have been installed to allow smooth cell phone connectivity. You can also check out websites like www.wilsonamplifiers.com for more information on how to solve bad cell phone reception via using cell phone boosters.