AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service)
AMPS was the original standard technology used on the first analog wireless phone systems in the United States, and it is still one of the most widely used technologies today. AMPS which operates in the 800Mz band, covers the entire country, and is utilized by 80% of US mobile phone subscribers.

Analog 
Initially all cellular phones employed analog communications which transmitted voice messages as if they were sound waves. When you speak into an analog wireless phone, your voice wave is modulated by a radio wave when it is transmitted over the air.

First generation (1G) wireless phones are analog phones that transmitted your voice using what was known as the AMPS protocol systems. As technology evolved into newer digital systems analog systems are becoming increasingly rare today. 

Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a computing and telecommunications industry specification that describes how mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) can easily interconnect with each other and with home and business phones and computers using a short-range wireless connection. Using this technology, users of cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants such as the Palm Pilot will be able to buy a three-in-one phone that can double as a portable phone at home or in the office, get quickly synchronized with information in a desktop or notebook computer, initiate the sending or receiving of a fax, initiate a printout, and, in general, have all mobile and fixed computer devices be totally coordinated. The technology requires that a low-cost transceiver chip be included in each device. Products with Bluetooth technology are expected to appear in large numbers beginning in 2000.

How It Works:
Each device is equipped with a microchip transceiver that transmits and receives in a previously unused frequency band of 2.45 GHz that is available globally (with some variation of bandwidth in different countries). In addition to data, up to three voice channels are available. Each device has a unique 48-bit address from the IEEE 802 standard. Connections can be point-to-point or multipoint. The maximum range is 10 meters. Data can be exchanged at a rate of 1 megabit per second (up to 2 Mbps in the second generation of the technology). A frequency hop scheme allows devices to communicate even in areas with a great deal of electromagnetic interference. Built-in encryption and verification is provided.


CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
CDMA is a multiple access system used in radio communication. This digital technology separates communications by a code method. This way, the system can mix a number of calls into the same voice channel. When the cellular radio tower receives the information, it looks at the coding used and reassembles each individual call, completing the transmission. 

Cellular Phone
Cellular or mobile phones are portable, wireless phone systems that typically operate in the 800 MHz frequency range. The cellular system, developed in the US, transmits voice calls using various types of technologies which are continuously evolving.


Circuit Switched vs. Packet Switched
There are two types of wireless data transmission - Circuit Switched and Packet Switched. Circuit Switched employs a dedicated voice channel to transmit and receive data, essentially like keeping a single phone line open during your entire conversation. A cellular modem uses Circuit Switched transmission, which allows you to dial up a computer over your wireless phone just like you would using a landline connection. Packet switched data transmission compresses the data and sends short data bursts between or during gaps in conversations on the voice channels. Packet data digital transmission is ideal for using your phone to send short messages, including E-mail, or access news headlines, and stock quotes from the Internet.


Digital Phone
Digital systems convert the sound wave created by your voice into a stream of 1's and 0's. When digitized, the information is compressed, manipulated, and transmitted in such a way that your conversations are more clear and static-free, and your conversation is made more secure from electronic "eavesdropping". Digital wireless technology also allows networks to carry more conversations at one time and allow additional features such as text messaging, fax, e-mail transmission, and internet access to be available to the user.


Dual Band
A Dual Band wireless phone can operate on either an 800 MHz system or on a 1900 MHz frequency system. Therefore, if a phone used a single technology (e.g. TDMA) but was dual band (e.g. 800 MHz and 1900 MHz) that phone could operate in the TDMA mode on either an 800 MHz system or a 1900 MHz system. 


Dual Mode
A Dual Mode wireless phone can operate in two different transmission technologies, such as AMPS or TDMA. Since the phone is dual mode, it can operate on an 800 MHz system using either the AMPS mode or the TDMA technology mode. 

Dual Band, Dual Mode
A Dual Band, Dual Mode wireless phone can operate using a combination of two different frequencies and two different transmission technologies. A Dual Band, Dual Mode phone could operate at either 800 MHz or 1900 MHz and support both AMPS technology and TDMA technology. Typically, for your wireless phone to work, you must be within the wireless phone system area that supports the same technology and frequency with which that phone was designed to work.. With a Dual Band, Dual Mode phone, however, you can take your phone outside of your home service area and generally continue to have wireless service available. 

EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GMS Evolution)
EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment), a faster version of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) wireless service, is designed to deliver data at rates up to 384 Kbps and enable the delivery of multimedia and other broadband applications to mobile phone and computer users. The EDGE standard is built on the existing GSM standard, using the same time-division multiple access (TDMA) structure and existing cell arrangements. Ericsson notes that, when available, its base stations can be updated with software. 

EDGE is expected to be commercially available in 2001. It is regarded as an evolutionary standard on the way to Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS).

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a packet-based wireless communication service that, when available in 2000, promises data rates from 56 up to 114 Kbps and continuous connection to the Internet for mobile phone and computer users. The higher data rates will allow users to take part in video conferences and interact with multimedia Web sites and similar applications using mobile handheld devices as well as notebook computers. GPRS is based on Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication and will complement existing services such circuit-switched cellular phone connections and the Short Message Service (SMS).

In theory, GPRS packet-based service should cost users less than circuit-switched services since communication channels are being used on a shared-use, as-packets-are-needed basis rather than dedicated only to one user at a time. It should also be easier to make applications available to mobile users because the faster data rate means that middleware currently needed to adapt applications to the slower speed of wireless systems will no longer be needed. Once GPRS becomes available, mobile users of a virtual private network VPN will be able to access the private network continuously rather than through a dial-up connection. 

GPRS will also complement Bluetooth, a standard for replacing wired connections between devices with wireless radio connections. In addition to the Internet Protocol (IP), GPRS supports X.25, a packet-based protocol that is used mainly in Europe. GPRS is an evolutionary step toward Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE) and Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS).


GSM (Global System for Mobile communication)
GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a digital mobile telephone system that is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world. GSM uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephone technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA). GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.

GSM is the de facto wireless telephone standard in Europe. GSM has over 120 million users worldwide and is available in 120 countries, according to the GSM MoU Association. Since many GSM network operators have roaming agreements with foreign operators, users can often continue to use their mobile phones when they travel to other countries.

American Personal Communications (APC), a subsidiary of Sprint, is using GSM as the technology for a broadband personal communications service (PCS). The service will ultimately have more than 400 base stations for the palm-sized handsets that are being made by Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. The handsets include a phone, a text pager, and an answering machine. 

GSM together with other technologies is part of an evolution of wireless mobile telecommunication that includes High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD), General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS).

i-mode
Although relatively unknown in the United States, i-mode is a wireless service launched in Japan in the spring of 1999 by NTT DoCoMo. The service is accessed by a wireless packet network and allows the user to access the Internet and send short-text messages on their digital wireless phone. i-Mode is hugely popular in Japan and may be a primary influence in the digital wireless world market.


PCS (Personal Communications Service) 
PCS is the name adopted by the new, digital wireless service providers who operate new phone systems in the 1900 MHz frequency range. PCS networks employ a range of technologies including GSM, TDMA and CDMA-One.

Roaming
When you purchase a service plan with a cellular phone, you are subscribing to a particular type of technology provided by your wireless system carrier. Roaming enables you to utilize your mobile phone via the network facilities of another provider outside of your subscribed service area. 


Second Generation (2G)
Second generation (2G) wireless phones are digital and are capable of providing voice / data / fax transfer as well as a range of other value-added services. Currently 2G systems are constantly evolving with higher data rates through new technologies such as TDMA, CDMA, GSM, PCS, and GPRS. 

TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
TDMA is a digital technology that allows multiple users to share the same voice channel by having each conversation transmitted alternately over short periods of time. Some versions of TDMA use the IS-136 specification for advanced digital wireless services. It is also one of the world’s most widely deployed digital wireless systems.

TDMA technology evolved from the original analog AMPS networks, and attracted many new network operators. It provides unlimited capacity, efficient coverage, and is well suited to emerging applications, such as wireless virtual private networks (VPNs). TDMA is also the ideal platform for PCS phones. 

TDMA breaks voice signals into sequential data pieces of defined length and sends each piece into an information conduit at specific time intervals. TDMA then reconstructs the pieces at the end of the conduit on the receiving phone. GSM and US-TDMA standards accommodates a much larger number of users by more finely dividing a radio frequency into time slots and allocating these slots to multiple calls. 


Third Generation (3G)
Third generation (3G) mobile phones and communication systems use high-speed data transfer technologies and state-of-the-art radio terminal technology. These technologies enable advanced user features on wireless handsets including multimedia, advanced text messaging, and access to e-mail and the Internet.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
The de facto worldwide standard for providing Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, digital assistants, and other wireless terminals. The WAP Forum was established in 1997 by several wireless phone companies and Unwired Planet (now Phone.com). The Panasonic Wireless Design Center is one of Its current members now comprising over 200 leading firms in the wireless communication field.


Wireless Phone Frequencies
For a phone to work in an area other than its "home" area, it must be in a system that supports the technology used by that phone‚ in the frequency which the phone is designed to work. 800 Megahertz (800 MHz) is the radio frequency that was originally assigned to cellular phones by the FCC in 1983. Cellular phones using AMPS, NAMPS, TDMA, and CDMA technologies are all currently available in this frequency range. 

1900 Megahertz, (1900 MHz) is the radio frequency range added by the FCC in order to create additional competition in wireless phone services. Wireless phones using PCS, GSM, TDMA, and CDMA technologies are currently available using this frequency range. 


source:
http://www.panasonic-wireless.com/cellterms.asp