Do you know why mobile phones are also called cell phones?

Mobile phones are also called cell phones, but have you ever wondered how they got the names?

By: Shweta Ganjoo |
June 29, 2017 4:08 pm

Life before the Apples and the Samsungs was simple. It was the time when mobiles were called cell phones. Those were the days when these cell phones used to have simple features– a keypad with large buttons, a small display screen, a couple of 2D games, and small storage space to store some songs. The prime purpose of the phone was making voice calls and send text messages. This was the time when we even used to pay for incoming calls and the world didn’t reply on the high-speed 3G and 4G networks to connect people.

But as the time passed by, phones became smarter and started offering a bundle of features. They started tracking your location and came with features that helped you chat with your friends as if they were sitting right in front of you. Before smartphones, there were cell phones.

But have you ever wondered how cell phones got their name?

Cell phones derive their names from the concept of cellular networks. In the olden days, network towers were installed on the ground to provide connection to the subscribers. The land area was divided into smaller units called ‘cells’, each of which had their own network towers. The frequency of these towers was based on the density of the phones in that area. To put into perspective, a metropolitan city like Bengaluru would have a greater number of network towers compared to the network towers in Meerut. Hence the term ‘cell phone’ came into use.

But, do you know why these land areas were called ‘cells’?

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It all started when two engineers Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young from Bell Labs set out to build a cellular telephone network around 1947. While developing the layout of a network or wireless towers, they chose the term ‘cellular’ as the coverage map looked like a group of biological cells. Eventually, all the phones that operated on a similar concept were called ‘cellular phones’ or cell phones.

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So, next time someone asks, you know what to say!

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