ENTRY 8

HARI RAYA PUASA

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Celebrated by the Muslims signifies the end of the fasting season of Ramadan for a month. The celebration is determined by sighting of the new moon. This is the most significant celebration for the Muslims. Muslims starts the day by congregating in the mosques early in the morning to perform Hari Raya Puasa prayers followed by visits to the graves of the departed. This festive occasion is greeted with great joy, the young will ask for forgiveness from their elders and everyone will put on new clothes. Open house or invitation for relatives and friends to come to their house is practised. Plenty of traditional Malay delicacies are served during this festive season. Houses are thoroughly cleaned and decorated with the lighting of oil lamps to welcome the angels which is believed to be visiting the earth during the seven days preceding the festivall. The celebration lasts for a month which the celebration is concentrated in the first three days.

ENTRY 7

How to Make Each Moment of Our Lives Meaningful

IT ALL DEPENDS ON MOTIVATION

It is extremely important for us to know how best to lead our daily lives. This depends upon our knowing what is a spiritual action and what is not, the difference between what is Dharma and what is not Dharma. The benefits of having this knowledge are incredible, infinite.

Take, for example, four people reciting the same Buddhist prayer. The first recites it with the motivation of achieving enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Because of this motivation, the recitation does become a cause of enlightenment, not only for the person doing the recitation but for all sentient beings.

The second person recites the prayer motivated by the desire for his or her own liberation from samsara. This action does not become a cause for the enlightenment of all sentient beings but for the everlasting happiness of liberation of that person alone. The third person recites the prayer with the motivation of receiving happiness in future lives. The result of this is neither enlightenment nor liberation, but simply happiness in a future life.

The fourth person, however, recites the prayer motivated by attachment clinging to the happiness of this life. Even though it is a Dharma prayer, a teaching of the Buddha, this person’s recitation is not a Dharma action, not a spiritual practice. It is a worldly dharma, the cause of suffering. Why? Because the motivation of attachment clinging to this life has the negative effect of disturbing the mind, of making it unpeaceful. Therefore, such motivation is labeled non-virtuous, as is the action itself.

They are non-virtuous because they result in suffering. Lama Atisha, the great Indian yogi and pandit who was invited to Tibet to re-establish the pure Dharma, was asked by his translator Drom Tönpa, himself an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, ‘‘What are the results of actions done simply for this life?’’ Lama Atisha replied that such actions cause unfortunate, suffering rebirths in the three lower realms—the hell, hungry ghost or animal realms.

Although I am using the action of reciting a prayer as an example, what we have to realize is that the above applies to all our actions throughout the twenty-four hours of each day—walking, sitting, sleeping, eating, talking, working at our jobs—everything we do, even breathing. Every single action can become a cause of either enlightenment, liberation or happiness in future lives, or rebirth in the suffering lower realms. It all depends on our motivation. For example, the simple action of drinking, swallowing just one mouthful of water, can become the cause of either enlightenment, liberation or happiness in future lives, or rebirth in the suffering lower realms. If you drink with a Dharma mind, that action of drinking becomes Dharma, the cause of happiness. If you drink with a worldly, non-Dharma mind, with attachment, or even worse, anger, this action is non-virtuous, a cause for rebirth in the lower realms.

Therefore, you should think like this: ‘‘If I drink water with bodhicitta motivation, no matter how many mouthfuls I take or how many glasses I drink, every single one becomes a cause of enlightenment, a cause of happiness for all sentient beings. If, however, I drink this water with attachment clinging to this life, then each mouthful, each glass, becomes only the cause of suffering—the unbearable suffering of the lower realms and all the problems experienced by human beings as well.’’

If I talk to you with the worldly mind of attachment clinging to this life, then for as many hours as I talk, every moment becomes the cause of unfortunate rebirths, the cause of suffering. If you drive a car with the motivation of attachment clinging to this life, then for as long as you drive, it all becomes negative karma. If, however, you drive with positive motivation, there is no doubt that it all becomes the cause of happiness.

If you sleep with attachment clinging to this life, the longer you sleep, the more negative karma, the more causes of lower rebirths, you create.

It’s the same when you write letters or books, read the newspaper or watch television—your motivation determines whether that action becomes Dharma, the cause of happiness, or negative karma, the cause of suffering. When you go shopping, again, your motivation determines whether it becomes the cause of enlightenment for other sentient beings, your own liberation or happiness in future lives, or the cause of suffering. If you shop with attachment clinging to this life, every time you buy something, it creates negative karma and is therefore not Dharma but the cause of suffering.

Similarly, when you work at your job, if the hours you spend working are motivated by bodhicitta, the determination to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, every moment becomes the cause of other sentient beings’ happiness, but if you work with attachment clinging to this life, everything you do becomes the cause for you to suffer in the lower realms.

INTERNAL EDUCATION COMES FIRST

Whatever work you do, there are two things to learn. The first is how to do the actual work, how to do your job, which is what you learn in school and college. This is what most people in the world are educated to do. But that alone is not sufficient. As I have already mentioned, that is nowhere near enough to ensure that your actions serve as the unmistaken cause of happiness. Simply knowing how to do your job never solves your problems completely. Neglecting inner education, which teaches you the attitude with which you should perform your tasks and how to live your life, and focusing on outer education alone brings neither satisfaction nor fulfillment to your heart.

It is of the utmost importance that you understand how to use your mind correctly when you do the things you do. There is no other choice. Why? If, for example, you’re working as a secretary or cooking with Dharma motivation—perhaps for your own happiness beyond this life or the happiness of others—then whatever you do becomes the cause of happiness, a good rebirth in the next life, the body of the happy transmigrator. If, even better, you have bodhicitta motivation, the determination to reach enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, then the secretarial work, cooking or whatever else you do becomes the cause of all sentient beings’ enlightenment.

Thus you can see that internal work—how to use your mind, how to motivate your actions—is far more important than external work, because it is this that determines whether what you do becomes the cause of happiness or the cause of suffering. Instruction in this, how to use your mind correctly, is what’s missing from our schools’ curricula. How to live intelligently is not taught in schools, colleges or universities.

Because you get paid for doing your job, it appears to be the cause of happiness and you believe it to be so. In reality, no matter how perfectly you do your job, how skilled you are or how many billions of dollars you make, since you are doing it out of worldly motivation, attachment clinging to this life, the work you do can never become the cause of happiness but constantly becomes the cause of suffering instead.

Actually, your job is merely a condition for your receiving a pay check. The principal cause of you getting paid is the good karma you created previously through giving generously to others or making offering to the Three Jewels of Refuge, other holy objects and so forth. It is also only through previously created good karma that you got your job in the first place—the job that itself is simply a condition for your getting paid.

Thus you can see that what you lack is education in how karma works.

All over the world you will find people who have never been educated at school or college or ever done a day’s work in their lives but are extremely wealthy, possessing enough money to last several lifetimes. This shows that what is generally considered to be success—wealth and reputation—can be had without either outer education or what’s called a ‘‘profession’’ or even a regular job. It all depends on karma.

ACTUAL PRACTICES FOR MAKING EACH MOMENT OF OUR LIVES MEANINGFUL

Working with bodhicitta

As you leave home for work, reflect on the meaning of your life— your universal responsibility to bring happiness to all sentient beings. If possible, generate bodhicitta consciously, by thinking, ‘‘In order to bring happiness to all sentient beings, I must achieve enlightenment, therefore, as a service to all beings, I am going to do my job.’’

If, for example, you’re a secretary, think as you do your job that you are fulfilling others’ wishes for happiness, that you are offering them happiness. If you are building a house, think that you are offering its future inhabitants, even the pets, the happiness of enjoying shelter, protection from the elements, heat and cold; helping them to have a long life. If you’re a hairdresser, think that you are offering your clients the happiness of having the beautiful hair they want.

Whatever work you do, you can think in the same way. If you’re a comedian, singer or musician, think that you are offering others the happiness of enjoying your performance, distracting them from sadness, depression or perhaps even anger. Also, it is not enough simply to motivate with bodhicitta at the beginning of an action. As time passes, you have to check again and again to make sure that you are still working for others and not for your ego. If you find that you are motivated by the desire for your own happiness, you have to transform this negative attitude into bodhicitta again by remembering the kindness of other sentient beings, thinking, ‘‘I have received all my past, present and future happiness from other sentient beings; there is nothing more precious than them. The only thing to do in life is to work for their happiness; to do anything else is meaningless, empty. Even Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, my holy objects of refuge and prayer, come from sentient beings—how could anything be kinder or more precious than others?’’ Thus, every hour that you work with this attitude—feeling that others are extremely precious and wanting to benefit them in the highest way—becomes Dharma, the true cause of happiness, the cause of enlightenment.

Also, from time to time, rejoice. Fill your heart with happiness by thinking, ‘‘How fortunate I am that I can serve others completely, that I can offer them much happiness, that they can use me for their happiness.’’

Taking care of your child with bodhicitta

If you have clinging attachment for your child, everything you do to take care of him or her becomes the cause of samsara. Instead, think, ‘‘I am taking care of somebody who is the source of all my past, present and future happiness, all comfort and enjoyment, including the supreme happiness of enlightenment. Therefore, this child is a very precious person in my life, one of the numberless kind mother sentient beings. Moreover, this being’s mind is obscured, under the control of delusion and karma and experiencing samsaric suffering, and completely dependent upon my help. Therefore, I am responsible to take care. Just as my own temporal and ultimate happiness depend on me, so do my child’s.’’ This is the attitude with which you should take care of your children. From time to time, rejoice: ‘‘How wonderful it is. The purpose of my life is to serve all sentient beings, and here I have an opportunity to serve at least one of them completely. I am so fortunate that my body, speech and mind can be useful in bringing happiness to at least one sentient being.’’

This is how to make taking care of your children into a sincere Dharma practice. This way, even if you don’t have time to do formal practice or retreat, you will never feel regret that you have completely wasted your life.

Otherwise, your reason for having children is the same as that for keeping a pet—your own comfort. The ordinary attitude is selfish pursuit of enjoyment for yourself alone, obsessively thinking, ‘‘This is my child; this child is mine,’’ as if your children existed simply for your own use. You are motivated by clinging to the object and cherishing your I.

The most important education that you can give children is in ethics and the development of a good heart. Without this, they will have suffering lives, becoming, for example, unkind, violent, and disobedient, not only to others but also to the kind parents who provided them with a precious human body and took care of them in many other ways. Such children will have neither love nor compassion for others, and may even regard their parents as their worst enemy. Additionally, they can be easily influenced by wrong views and taught that these views are reality, for example, that their parents are responsible for all their problems. As a result, they can grow up hating their parents and regarding them as enemies. Because of their uncontrolled minds, such children’s lives may fill with crime, relationship problems and depression, and instead of finding peace, satisfaction and fulfillment, they just feel that their lives are utterly without meaning.

The best way to be healthy and to avoid all sickness, even AIDS, is to have a good heart and pure ethics. This is also the best way to protect your life and live long. It enables sons and daughters to live in harmony with the rest of their family, especially their parents, and to be kind, loving and compassionate to all other people as well. At the very least, it reduces the suffering of relationships. Actually, whatever torture people experience is not inflicted by somebody else. It is caused by the person’s own concepts of hatred, jealousy, dissatisfied desire and, especially, ignorance, the foundation of it all.

Ethics and a good heart make life much simpler, less complicated. If children are educated in this way, their lives will be peaceful, their hearts will be fulfilled and their deaths will be happy and controlled. Ethics prevent you from harming others, while a good heart makes you benefit them.

It is the responsibility of teachers and parents to give children this most important education of all. Moreover, parents and teachers themselves have to serve as both example and inspiration. Of course, they are limited in what they can do for a child by that child’s individual karma. Therefore, everything that they wish for that child may not happen; the children themselves also have to make an effort. Nevertheless, parents and teachers are extremely important influences, and there is responsibility on both sides. If children grow up with ethics and a good heart, they will not give harm to others, and as a result, others will love, support and not harm them.

Therefore, the way in which parents and teachers educate and influence children determines how much they harm or bring happiness to many other living beings. Your child can destroy the world or bring it peace and joy. And, of course, the way you bring up your children influences how they bring up their own.

Walking with bodhicitta

If you walk with bodhicitta, every step becomes the cause of the highest happiness, peerless enlightenment, for all sentient beings. Walk with strong awareness, thinking, ‘‘Each sentient being, each person, each insect, is the source of all my past, present and future happiness.’’ This is called remembering sentient beings’ ‘‘extensive’’ kindness. Reflecting on the four ways that all sentient beings have been kind to you as mother—giving you your precious human body, protecting you from harm, providing you with enjoyments and making sure that you receive a good education—is called awareness of their ‘‘numberless’’ kindness. As you walk with this awareness, whenever you see another sentient being, try to feel that being’s kindness in particular. Whenever you practice these recollections, the conclusion that you should reach is the wish to free them from suffering and bring them all happiness; the wish to lead them all to enlightenment.

From the moment you leave home, practice mindfulness, keeping bodhicitta constantly in mind by thinking continuously, ‘‘The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from suffering and bring them happiness.’’ Think like this with everybody you see—on the road, in shops, restaurants and cars, anybody you pass on foot and animals and insects everywhere. Walking back, again maintain constant awareness of bodhicitta until you get home.

This is the secret to enjoying life, to living a happy life in a meaningful way without allowing your ego to cheat you.

Walking with emptiness

You can also meditate on emptiness while you walk. This prevents your walking from becoming the cause of samsaric suffering in general and the unimaginable suffering of the three lower realms in particular. Instead, every step becomes a cure for the entire round of samsaric suffering and an antidote to the poisonous root of all delusions, ignorance—not perceiving that the I is empty from its own side. Meditating like this transforms your walking into the cause of liberation, freedom from samsara.

As you walk, ask yourself, ‘‘Why do I say, ‘I’m walking’?’’ Analyze this. The only reason you can find for saying ‘‘I am walking’’ is the fact that your aggregate of body is performing the action called walking, that’s all. Because your skandha of form is performing the action of walking, your mind comes up with the label ‘‘I am walking.’’ Inside your body there appears to you an I that seems to exist from its own side. That’s what you say is walking, but it’s a complete hallucination; it doesn’t exist at all. The I that you say is walking is merely imputed by your own mind. What appears to you and what you believe—a real, truly existent I that is not merely labeled by the mind—is a complete hallucination. It doesn’t exist; it is empty.

You can apply this analysis to all other phenomena—roads, houses, trees, whatever. Just like the action of walking, they too are all merely labeled by your mind. What appears to be real, truly out there, is a hallucination. That is the object to be refuted.

Therefore, as you walk, be aware that in the sense that they all appear from their own side, I, action and object are all hallucinations. Then, no matter how long you walk, as long as you walk mindfully, it all becomes lam-rim, it all becomes a remedy to ignorance, a sword to cut the root of samsara, the root of all suffering.

Walking as if in a dream

Another simple way of meditating while you walk is to question yourself, ‘‘Does my I appear to be merely labeled or not?’’ It does not appear to be. ‘‘Does my action of walking appear to be merely labeled? Do the road, sky, cars, people, cats, dogs and ice-cream all appear to be merely labeled? Does whatever I see appear to be merely labeled by my mind or not?’’ No, all these things do not appear to you like that at all. Therefore, it is all like a dream, a hallucination. You are walking as if in a dream; the road, sky, cars, people and trees, your walking itself, are like a dream. (Even though I am saying this correctly, ‘‘like a dream,’’ it is more effective for our minds to say that it ‘‘is a dream; I’m dreaming.’’) Why meditate like this? When you practice mindfulness in this way, there is no clinging, no grasping, because you understand that everything is a hallucination, a dream, unreal. You realize that in fact, all those things that appear as something real coming from out there—a real I from out there, a real road from out there, a real sky from out there, real walking, real cars, real people, real trees, real enemies, real friends—are merely imputed by the mind. When you understand this, attachment and anger are less likely to arise. Thus, this practice brings peace to your mind immediately; your mind becomes detached and free, patient and without anger. When you walk with the mindfulness that everything is a dream, you understand in your heart that everything is not real, does not exist. If you relate this understanding to the I, action and object, and so forth, that appear from there, you can see that they are empty. When you meditate that everything is like a dream, no matter what you see—the various shapes of people’s bodies or the billions of other phenomena that you designate as ugly or beautiful—you know there is nothing to cling to, nothing to get angry at, because there is nothing to hold onto; in your heart you know that they don’t exist. Seeing things in this way helps you to let go.

Therefore, just like the analytical meditation on emptiness while you walk, all the walking you do while meditating on everything as a dream also becomes a method to cut the root of samsara, a remedy to the entire cycle of samsaric suffering, including problems in your relationships, being treated badly by others and so forth. Walking with the mindfulness that everything is a dream eradicates delusion and karma, the fundamental cause of samsara, the main cause of suffering.

This is how to make walking the cause of ultimate happiness, complete liberation from samsara and its cause.

Walking with dependent arising

A fourth way of meditating while walking is to walk with mindfulness of dependent arising. As I mentioned before, ‘‘I am walking because the aggregates are walking—my mind has simply fabricated the label, ‘I am walking’’’—in other words, the merely labeled I is merely labeled walking and merely labeled seeing the merely labeled sky, the merely labeled trees, the merely labeled people, the merely labeled beautiful man, the merely labeled beautiful woman, the merely labeled ugly buildings, the merely labeled cars, the merely labeled houses and so forth. This is walking with mindfulness of subtle dependent arising.

Walking with impermanence

You can also walk with meditation on impermanence and death. With every step you take, think how your life is running out, getting shorter and shorter. The faster you walk, the more aware of how quickly your life is finishing you become. Each step is bringing you closer to death and, if you fail to purify your negative karma, to the immeasurable suffering of the lower realms. (Similarly, when you’re driving your car, feel like a condemned person being led to the gallows, each moment bringing you closer to your execution.)

This is how to practice the mindfulness of life finishing quickly, bringing you ever closer to death and the lower realms. This meditation helps you deal with whatever problems you are facing right now—relationship problems, emotional problems, all your problems. Reflecting on impermanence and death puts an immediate end to desire, jealousy and anger. It quickly brings incredible peace to your mind and makes you more determined than ever to practice Dharma and not to waste your life. It encourages and inspires you to make everything you do a Dharma action. It is a very powerful meditation.

Eating with bodhicitta

Why should you offer your food and drink before you consume it? It’s not because the buddhas are hungry. If you have taken refuge, of course, you have a commitment to offer all your food and drink, however, every time you offer your food and drink to the Guru Triple Gem, you create many causes of enlightenment.

You are creating merit not only because you are making offerings to the Buddha. You are also making offerings to the Dharma and the Sangha, so your offering is that much more powerful.

Furthermore, since you are making offerings to the Guru, you are creating the most extensive merit of all.

This practice comes from Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s compassion. By making it a refuge precept to offer all your food to the Triple Gem, Lord Buddha is making you create countless causes for inconceivable happiness every day, ensuring that you attain the peerless happiness of enlightenment—the complete eradication of all mistakes of mind and the achievement of all realizations—as soon as possible.

There is also another very important reason for offering all your food and drink to the Guru Triple Gem. The comfort and enjoyment you get from eating and drinking—your very life and health, your perfect human rebirth, your long life—all the benefits you experience every day, hour, minute and second, come from the kindness of other sentient beings, from even their mere existence; from their having endured unbearable suffering through being killed, tortured and harmed in other ways; from other people creating so much negative karma in growing food for you. This is what the food and drink you enjoy costs other sentient beings.

For example, there are visible and invisible sentient beings in the water you use for cooking and drinking. When the water is boiled, they all suffer. Think about the wheat you use for cakes, noodles or bread or the rice on which you base so many meals. In the West, the fields are plowed by machine, killing many small creatures such as insects, worms and mice. In the East, oxen are used to pull the plows, so not only do the tiny creatures suffer as before, but also these beasts of burden suffer greatly by having to work hard for long hours under the blazing sun. If land has to be cleared, the fires and bulldozing kill and injure many more sentient beings. Not only do farmers give sentient beings much harm and create much negative karma on our behalf, but they themselves also have to work long, hard hours preparing the fields, looking after the crops, harvesting the grain and getting it ready for sale.

Think how much suffering goes into each grain of rice you eat. Then think about the previous grain from which it came and the beginningless continuity of all those grains of rice. By thinking back carefully on the beginningless continuity of every grain of rice you eat, you can get a deep feeling for just how many sentient beings have suffered, created negative karma and been killed in order that you can eat. As a result, you’ll no longer be able to bear eating food simply for your own benefit, happiness or enjoyment.

It’s the same with the vegetables and salad that you eat. Countless sentient beings have suffered by being harmed or killed in the ground or by having to harm or kill others by tilling the soil, poisoning worms and insects and so forth.

If you understand all this, there’s no way you’ll be able to eat simply for your own selfish enjoyment. You won’t be able to stand doing that. You’ll feel that you must make the food and drink you consume beneficial for others, especially those who have suffered so much in bringing it to you.

Therefore, first offer your food and drink to the Guru Triple Gem, and then dedicate the merits of this offering to those sentient beings who suffered so much on your behalf, as mentioned in the prayer below. By transforming each instance of eating and drinking into Dharma in this way, you create inconceivable merit, which becomes not only the cause of your own enlightenment, but by the way also brings you liberation from samsara, good rebirths and happiness in future lives, and, in the absence of clinging, happiness in this life too. And when you dedicate the merits of your offering to others, you bring all these different levels of happiness to all other sentient beings as well. Food offering meditation

Generate bodhicitta motivation by thinking, ‘‘The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from suffering and lead them to happiness, especially the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. This universal responsibility is mine alone. In order to succeed in this, I must first attain full enlightenment myself. Therefore, I am going to practice the yoga of offering food and drink to the Guru Triple Gem.’’

Then reflect on the emptiness of yourself, the food, the action of offering, the merit field and the action of eating. Visualize first that the food you are offering becomes a vast ocean of nectar and the bowl it’s in becomes a huge jeweled container. Now, multiply this and visualize numberless huge, jeweled containers filling all of space. Then recite the blessing mantra, which causes each buddha to receive numberless offerings:

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMARDINE TATHAGATAYA ARHATE SAMYAK SAMBUDDHAYA TAYATHA OM VAJRE VAJRE MAHAVAJREMAHATEJA VAJREMAHA VIDYA VAJREMAHA BODHICITTA VAJRE MAHA BODHI MANDO PASAM KRAMANA VAJRE SARVA KARMA AVARANAVISHODHANA VAJRESOHA.(3x)

Then make the following offering prayers: The guru is Buddha, the guru is Dharma, The guru is Sangha also.

The guru is the source of all happiness— I offer this food to all gurus.

In all future lives, may I and those around me Never be separated from the Triple Gem, Continuously make offerings to the Triple Gem, And always receive the blessings of the Triple Gem.

The Guru Pujaand other tantric practices explain that by making an offering to even one ‘‘pore’’ of the guru, which means, for example, one of the guru’s pets, you accumulate more merit than you would by making that offering to all the buddhas of the past, present and future and the buddhas of the ten directions.

Therefore, when it comes to creating extensive merit, there is no more powerful merit field than your virtuous friend. That’s why Nagarjuna said, ‘‘Abandon all other offerings. Make offerings to only your guru. By pleasing him you will attain sublime wisdom, the state of omniscience.’’

If you can, elaborate on the method above by making offerings to the Triple Gem and all holy objects—statues, stupas, scriptures and so forth—in the ten directions, seeing them all as manifestations of your guru’s holy mind, your offering generating infinite bliss in his holy mind.

Make charity of oceans of nectar to all sentient beings, fully satisfying each and every one. Dedicate the merit of this charity to their liberation and enlightenment.

Dedication

By generating bodhicitta, making offerings to your virtuous friend and the holy objects of the ten directions and making charity to all sentient beings, you have created infinite merit. Included in all sentient beings are the worms inside your body. Dedicate this infinite merit by praying, ‘‘Through the connection I have established by making charity to all 21,000 microscopic worms inside my body, may they be reborn human in their very next life and may I be able to guide them to enlightenment by showing them the Dharma in all future lives.

‘‘Because of these merits, may I, my entire family, all Dharma students and all other sentient beings in all future lifetimes never be separated from the Triple Gem, always make offerings to the Triple Gem, and receive the blessings of the Triple Gem. May I, the other students and all other sentient beings, especially the benefactors of this food and all those who worked, suffered and died in bringing it to me, quickly realize the entire Dharma path, from guru devotion up to enlightenment without even a second’s delay.

‘‘Because of the past, present and future merit created by myself, the buddhas and bodhisattvas and all other sentient beings, which is empty from its own side, may the I, which is empty from its own side, attain Guru Shakyamuni’s enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, and lead all sentient beings, who are empty from their own side, to that enlightened state, which is empty from its own side, as quickly as possible, by myself alone.’’

Further explanation of this practice Whether or not you know any offering prayers, the most important meditation you can do is that on the emptiness of yourself, the food and the action of eating. Also, visualize that you are not offering ordinary food but a vast ocean of nectar, which pleases all the buddhas. Offer it to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and all the holy objects of the ten directions—statues, stupas, scriptures and so forth. If you also visualize that these holy objects are manifestations of your root guru, because of the enormous power of the object, the guru with whom you’ve established a Dharma relationship, you accumulate the greatest possible merit. Then you make charity of the food to all sentient beings, visualizing that they all become enlightened as a result.

To do this practice, you can visualize the Guru Puja merit field and all the virtuous friends with whom you have a connection, seeing them all as emanations of your root guru. Then you make the offering. This is the elaborate meditation; you can also do an abbreviated one.

It is said in the teachings that during your lifetime, 21,000 tiny worms live in your body. Pray, ‘‘Through this connection, I shall teach them Dharma in all future lives and lead them to enlightenment.’’

By meditating like this you create infinite merit in five different ways: by generating bodhicitta motivation; by making offerings to your gurus; by making offerings to the Triple Gem; by making offerings to all the other holy objects; and by making offerings to all sentient beings. The more merit you accumulate, the closer you get to enlightenment. The closer you get to enlightenment, the closer you get to bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment.

Finally, dedicate the merit to be able to actualize the entire lam-rim in your own mind and in the minds of all other sentient beings, especially in the minds of your family members and any people who are sick or dying that you specifically want to remember in your prayers. Seal your dedication to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings by meditating on emptiness, as above. Then, eat as mindfully as possible.

If you have received a highest yoga tantra initiation, while making the offering, stabilize your concentration of yourself as the deity, maintaining constant awareness that wherever the deity is, there too is your guru—you, the deity and your guru are one. With each mouthful of food or drink, remain mindful that you are offering it to your guru-deity. If you maintain the clear appearance of your body in the aspect of the holy body of the deity, you are practicing what is known in tantra as pure appearance and pure divine pride, and each mouthful becomes a tsog offering. Since you are making this offering to your guru, you accumulate the greatest possible merit. Finally, since this meditation is a part of your samaya to visualize yourself as the deity, you are fulfilling your commitment to do so.

If you have not received a great initiation, visualize in your heart Guru Shakyamuni Buddha or a deity with whom you feel a close connection or to whom you pray, such as Tara or Chenrezig. If, while making the offering, you concentrate on the Buddha or the deity at your heart as inseparably one with your guru, your practice becomes a form of guru yoga, like that in the Guru Puja or the Six Session Yoga or other guru yoga practices that you might have heard of.

Shopping with bodhicitta

When you go shopping, if you buy something for someone else, think sincerely of the other person’s happiness and offer the gift without attachment clinging to your own happiness. If you are buying something for your own use, think, ‘‘I’m the servant of all sentient beings. My job is to free them from all suffering and lead them to enlightenment. Therefore, even though I am using this object, ultimately, it is for them.’’ This is the way to use the things you buy—with the thought that you are the servant of others and that whatever you enjoy is ultimately for them.

If you shop with bodhicitta, not only do you avoid creating negative karma, but you also create the cause of supreme enlightenment for yourself and all sentient beings. If you shop with renunciation, you create the cause of happiness. If you shop with meditation on emptiness, by cutting the root of ignorance, you create the cause of liberation from samsara. Shopping with bodhicitta is best, because it brings you to enlightenment. Partying with bodhicitta

When you give a party, think, ‘‘I am responsible for the happiness of all sentient beings. The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from suffering and lead them to all happiness, especially the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. This is my universal responsibility. To succeed in this I must first reach enlightenment myself, therefore I am going to do the Dharma practice of offering food and drink to others.’’

If you throw a party for only your own happiness, with ego and attachment, the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas, clinging to the comfort of this life, your motivation is completely negative and the entire event becomes completely non-virtuous. No matter how many thousands of guests you entertain, all you do is create negative karma, countless causes for rebirth in the lower realms. If, however, your motivation for having a party and offering food and drink to others is a Dharma motivation from one of the three levels of virtue, it all becomes the cause of happiness.

Not only when you’re giving a party, but even when you offer food and drink to others in the course of normal daily life, if you visualize them as manifestations of your guru and think that you are making an offering to him, you accumulate the most extensive merit. If you visualize the people to whom you are offering the food and drink as the deity to whom you pray, you are practicing tantra and creating unbelievable merit, much more than you would with simple charity. In this way, even if you give a person something quite small, like a glass of water or a piece of candy, you have made an incredibly successful business transaction, the result of which is unceasing happiness. Furthermore, if you and the person to whom you are giving the water or candy are both disciples of the same guru and you remember him at that time, the merit you create is greater than that of making offerings to the numberless buddhas of the three times and the ten directions. Thus, everything becomes the cause of enlightenment; you have made the greatest possible profit out of that. No matter how little money you spent, the end result is not only enlightenment and, of course, all the other happinesses that lead up to it, but also you have avoided creating negative karma, the cause of samsara and the lower realms.

Going to the toilet with bodhicitta

Even going to the toilet can be made useful for yourself and others. Visualize above the crown of your head your guru and Vajrasattva, the powerful deity of purification, as one. Visualize all sentient beings at your heart. From Vajrasattva, nectar rushes down through the crown of your head to the sentient beings at your heart, purifying them of all their diseases, negative karma, obscurations and spirit harm. Recite either the short or the long Vajrasattva mantras. While doing so, visualize that whatever you excrete is actually all the sentient beings’ diseases, in the form of pus and blood; negative karma and obscurations, in the form of filthy black liquid; and spirit harm, in the form of snakes, frogs and the like.

You can also visualize the opening of the toilet as the mouth of the Lord of Death, and as all the negativity enters, it turns into nectar. When you have finished, imagine that the Lord of Death’s mouth closes and is sealed by a vajra, and you and all other sentient beings are purified. This meditation also helps you enjoy a long and healthy life. Finally, the Lord of Death sinks hundreds of feet deep into the ground, from where it is impossible to return.

Lama Yeshe once observed that in New York City, the best place to retreat is in the toilet! He might have said this because he used to give so much of his time to others—talking with people, spending time with their families and children—that perhaps it was only when he went to the bathroom that he found time to do his meditation practices.

If you do this toilet yoga, you get to do your Vajrasattva practice several times a day. This can only help you, as in this way, any negative karma that you have created and any broken precepts or damaged commitments get purified soon, before they’ve had much time to multiply. Going to the toilet offers you this incredible opportunity.

Short Vajrasattva mantra

OM VAJRASATTVA HUM

Long Vajrasattva mantra

OM VAJRASATTVA SAMAYA MANUPALAYA, VAJRASATTVA DENOPA TITHA, DIDO ME BHAVA, SUTO KAYO ME BHAVA, SUPO KAYO ME BHAVA, ANURAKTO ME BHAVA, SARVA SIDDHI ME PRAYATSA, SARVA KARMA SU TSAME, TSITTAM SHRIYAM KURU HUM, HA HA HA HA HO, BHAGAVAN SARVA TATHAGATA, VAJRA MAME MUNTSA, VAJRA BHAVA MAHASAMAYASATTVA AHHUM PHET HOWTOMAKEEACHMOMENT OF OUR LIVESMEANINGFUL

The meaning of the mantra: You, Vajrasattva, have generated the holy mind [bodhicitta] according to your pledge [samaya]. Your holy mind is enriched with the simultaneous holy actions of releasing transmigratory beings from samsara [the circling, suffering aggregates]. Whatever happens in my life—happiness or suffering, good or bad—with a pleased, holy mind, never give up but please guide me. Please stabilize all happiness, including the happiness of the upper realms, actualize all actions and sublime and common realizations, and please make the glory of the five wisdoms abide in my heart.

Sleeping with bodhicitta

There are many different kinds of meditation you can do before going to sleep. There are the profound meditations of tantra, but generally, you can generate the motivation of bodhicitta by thinking, ‘‘The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from suffering and lead them to happiness, especially the peerless happiness of enlightenment. I have this universal responsibility. To succeed in this, I must first attain enlightenment myself, therefore, I am going to practice the yoga of sleeping.’’ With this bodhicitta motivation, go to sleep.

Another common meditation is to visualize your guru on your pillow, and when you lie down, your head rests in his lap. Then, in the presence of your guru, who with devotion you visualize as one with the buddha, generate compassion for all sentient beings and go to sleep. If you do this, your entire night’s sleep will be virtuous, the cause of happiness. Thus, you can go to bed with devotion to your guru, with devotion to the buddha and with compassion for all sentient beings by reflecting on their suffering.

You can also think that as you go to sleep you are in the pure land of the deity you practice. This leaves positive imprints on your mind and you create the karma to be reborn in that pure land when you die.

You can also go to sleep with the thought of renunciation, reflecting on the suffering nature of samsara, impermanence and death and so forth, or by meditating on emptiness or dependent arising, looking at everything as a dream or an illusion, as merely labeled by the mind. If you go to bed mindful that everything that appears to you as not merely labeled by the mind is a dream, an hallucination, it can help you recognize your dreams as dreams and to practice virtue while you are dreaming. No matter which of these techniques you practice, your sleep becomes Dharma, virtue.

In tantra, there are two sleeping yogas: that of conventional truth and that of absolute truth. If you have received a great initiation, you can learn the details of these practices from the commentaries on the practice of that deity.

In the lam-rim there’s some advice on how to get up early in the morning without being overwhelmed by sleep. Before getting into bed the night before, wash your feet while thinking of light. Try it; it works.

As I mentioned above, you can also go to sleep visualizing whichever pure land in which you’d like to be reborn. This can also help should you die suddenly. If you have trained your mind in this practice and generated the strong wish to be reborn in that pure land, during the death process you may be able to direct your consciousness to be reborn there.

Experiencing illness and death with bodhicitta The very heart of Dharma practice, the best of all, the ultimate thought transformation, the supreme psychology, is to experience your problems on behalf of others.

Perhaps you have AIDS or cancer. Maybe you’re having problems in your relationship or suffering from depression. Possibly you’re dying. Whatever trouble you’re experiencing, think, ‘‘I’m experiencing this problem on behalf of all sentient beings, to bring them happiness. I am taking on the AIDS [or cancer, relationship problems, depression, whatever] of all those who are suffering from AIDS at the moment and for all those who have the karma to get it. I take it all upon myself. I am experiencing this disease on behalf of all sentient beings who either have it or will get it.’’ No matter what has happened to you—asthma, depression, business failure, being raped—you can dedicate it in the same way.

Throughout the day, as soon as the thought ‘‘I have AIDS’’ arises, immediately think, ‘‘I am experiencing this for the sake of all sentient beings.’’

When you are dying, think, ‘‘I am experiencing death for the numberless sentient beings who are also experiencing the suffering of dying at this very moment. I take it all upon myself. May they be free from the suffering of death and receive ultimate happiness right now.’’ Try to die with this thought.

Each time you think this way, you purify unbelievable eons of negative karma and create merit as limitless as the sky. Each time you practice taking the suffering of others upon yourself, you come much closer to enlightenment, which means you come much closer to bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment. There is no more beneficial way to die than to die with this bodhicitta thought.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls people who can die like this completely self-supporting, because through familiarity with the various death meditations, at the most critical time of their lives, death, they can guide themselves skillfully to the next life.

CONCLUSION

If twenty-four hours a day, everything you do is motivated by bodhicitta, you accumulate infinite merit. Moreover, every single action becomes a cause for not only your own enlightenment but also the happiness of every other sentient being. This is the way to make your life both as meaningful and as rich as possible.

ENTRY 6

Overview

According to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph discussed developing a wireless phone in 1915, but were afraid deployment of the technology could undermine its monopoly on wired service in the U.S.^[2]

The first commercial mobile phone service was launched in Japan by NTT in 1978. By November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world had reached 3.3 billion, or half of the human population (although some users have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.^[3]

The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use devices called smartphones. In 1999 the first mobile internet service was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service. By 2007 over 798 million people around the world accessed the internet or equivalent mobile internet services such as WAP and i-Mode at least occasionally using a mobile phone rather than a personal computer.

[edit] Cellular systems

See also: Cellular frequencies

Mobile phone tower

Mobile phones send and receive radio signals with any number of cell site base stations fitted with microwave antennas. These sites are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building, located throughout populated areas, then connected to a cabled communication network and switching system. The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, normally not more than 8 to 13 km (approximately 5 to 8 miles) away.

When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and can then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations, and is able to switch seamlessly between sites. As the user moves around the network, the "handoffs" are performed to allow the device to switch sites without interrupting the call.

Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. Many of these sites are camouflaged to blend with existing environments, particularly in scenic areas.

The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digital data that includes digitized audio (except for the first generation analog networks). The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. The technologies are grouped by generation. The first-generation systems started in 1979 with Japan, are all analog and include AMPS and NMT. Second-generation systems, started in 1991 in Finland, are all digital and include GSM, CDMA and TDMA.

The nature of cellular technology renders many phones vulnerable to 'cloning': anytime a cell phone moves out of coverage (for example, in a road tunnel), when the signal is re-established, the phone sends out a 're-connect' signal to the nearest cell-tower, identifying itself and signalling that it is again ready to transmit. With the proper equipment, it's possible to intercept the re-connect signal and encode the data it contains into a 'blank' phone -- in all respects, the 'blank' is then an exact duplicate of the real phone and any calls made on the 'clone' will be charged to the original account.

Third-generation (3G) networks, which are still being deployed, began in Japan in 2001. They are all digital, and offer high-speed data access in addition to voice services and include W-CDMA (known also as UMTS), and CDMA2000 EV-DO. China will launch a third generation technology on the TD-SCDMA standard. Operators use a mix of predesignated frequency bands determined by the network requirements and local regulations.

In an effort to limit the potential harm from having a transmitter close to the user's body, the first fixed/mobile cellular phones that had a separate transmitter, vehicle-mounted antenna, and handset (known as car phones and bag phones) were limited to a maximum 3 watts Effective Radiated Power. Modern handheld cellphones which must have the transmission antenna held inches from the user's skull are limited to a maximum transmission power of 0.6 watts ERP. Regardless of the potential biological effects, the reduced transmission range of modern handheld phones limits their usefulness in rural locations as compared to car/bag phones, and handhelds require that cell towers be spaced much closer together to compensate for their lack of transmission power.

Some handhelds include an optional auxiliary antenna port on the back of the phone, which allows it to be connected to a large external antenna and a 3 watt cellular booster. Alternately in fringe-reception areas, a cellular repeater may be used, which uses a long distance high-gain dish antenna or yagi antenna to communicate with a cell tower far outside of normal range, and a repeater to rebroadcast on a small short-range local antenna that allows any cellphone within a few meters to function properly.

[edit] Handsets

Nokia is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, with a global device market share of approximately 40% in 2008. Other major mobile phone manufacturers (in order of market share) include Samsung (14%), Motorola (14%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG (7%).^[4] These manufacturers account for over 80% of all mobile phones sold and produce phones for sale in most countries.

Other manufacturers include Apple Inc., Audiovox (now UTStarcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens, CECT, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Neonode, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel, Philips, Research In Motion, Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sendo, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Sonim Technologies, T&A Alcatel, Huawei, Trium and Toshiba. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones.

There are several categories of mobile phones, from basic phones to feature phones such as musicphones and cameraphones, to smartphones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which incorporated PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturization and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today. Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM Blackberry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones; the Nokia N-Series of multimedia phones; and the Apple iPhone which provides full-featured web access and multimedia capabilities.

Main article: Mobile phone features

Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls, including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organizer functions, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and serve as a wireless modem for a PC, and soon will also serve as a console of sorts to online games and other high quality games. The total value of mobile data services exceeds the value of paid services on the Internet, and was worth 31 billion dollars in 2006 (source Informa).^{[citation needed]} The largest categories of mobile services are music, picture downloads, videogaming, adult entertainment, gambling, video/TV.

[edit] Applications

The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging, with 74% of all mobile phone users as active users (over 2.4 billion out of 3.3 billion total subscribers at the end of 2007). SMS text messaging was worth over 100 billion dollars in annual revenues in 2007 and the worldwide average of messaging use is 2.6 SMS sent per day per person across the whole mobile phone subscriber base. (source Informa 2007). The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.

The other non-SMS data services used by mobile phones were worth 31 Billion dollars in 2007, and were led by mobile music, downloadable logos and pictures, gaming, gambling, adult entertainment and advertising (source: Informa 2007). The first downloadable mobile content was sold to a mobile phone in Finland in 1998, when Radiolinja (now Elisa) introduced the downloadable ringing tone service. In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service and roughly the same size as Google in annual revenues.

The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000. Mobile news services are expanding with many organizations providing "on-demand" news services by SMS. Some also provide "instant" news pushed out by SMS. Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo!^[5] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.

Companies like Monster are starting to offer mobile services such as job search and career advice. Consumer applications are on the rise and include everything from information guides on local activities and events to mobile coupons and discount offers one can use to save money on purchases. Even tools for creating websites for mobile phones are increasingly becoming available, e.g. Mobilemo.

Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two coca cola machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets. For example in the Philippines it is not unusual to have your whole paycheck paid to the mobile account. In Kenya the limit of money transfers from one mobile banking account to another is one million US dollars. In India paying utility bills with mobile gains a 5% discount. In Estonia the government found criminals collecting cash parking fees, so the government declared that only mobile payments via SMS were valid for parking and today all parking fees in Estonia are handled via mobile and the crime involved in the activity has vanished.

Mobile Applications are developed using the Six M's (previously Five M's) service-development theory created by the author Tomi Ahonen with Joe Barrett of Nokia and Paul Golding of Motorola. The Six M's are Movement (location), Moment (time), Me (personalization), Multi-user (community), Money (payments) and Machines (automation). The Six M's / Five M's theory is widely referenced in the telecoms applications literature and used by most major industry players. The first book to discuss the theory was Services for UMTS by Ahonen & Barrett in 2002.

The availability of mobile phone backup applications is growing with the increasing amount of mobile phone data being stored on mobile phones today. With mobile phone manufacturers producing mobile handsets with more and more memory storage capabilities the awareness of the importance in backing up mobile phone data is increasing. Corporate mobile phone users today keep very important company information on their mobiles, information if lost then not easily replaced. Wireless backup applications like SC BackUp offer users the chance to backup mobile phone data using advanced wireless technology. Users can backup, restore or transfer mobile data anytime, anywhere all over the world, to a secured server.

Other common applications include diaries, timers, chronometers, games, ...

[edit] Media

The mobile phone became a mass media channel in 1998 when the first ringing tones were sold to mobile phones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon other media content appeared such as news, videogames, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. In 2006 the total value of mobile phone paid media content exceeded internet paid media content and was worth 31 Billion dollars (source Informa 2007). The value of music on phones was worth 9.3 Billion dollars in 2007 and gaming was worth over 5 billion dollars in 2007 (source Netsize Guide 2008 [1]).

The mobile phone is often called the Fourth Screen (if counting cinema, TV and PC screens as the first three) or Third Screen (counting only TV and PC screens). It is also called the Seventh of the Mass Media (with Print, Recordings, Cinema, Radio, TV and Internet the first six). Most early content for mobile tended to be copies of legacy media, such as the banner advertisement or the TV news highlight video clip. Recently unique content for mobile has been emerging, from the ringing tones and ringback tones in music to "mobisodes," video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.

The advent of media on the mobile phone has also produced the opportunity to identify and track Alpha Users or Hubs, the most influential members of any social community. AMF Ventures measured in 2007 the relative accuracy of three mass media, and found that audience measures on mobile were nine times more accurate than on the internet and 90 times more accurate than on TV.

[edit] Power supply

Mobile phones generally obtain power from batteries, which can be recharged from a USB port, from portable batteries, from mains power or a cigarette lighter socket in a car using an adapter (often called battery charger or wall wart) or from a solar panel or a dynamo (that can also use a USB port to plug the phone).

Formerly, the most common form of mobile phone batteries were nickel metal-hydride, as they have a low size and weight. Lithium-Ion batteries are sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not have the voltage depression that nickel metal-hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone manufacturers have now switched to using lithium-Polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-Ion, the main advantages of this being even lower weight and the possibility to make the battery a shape other than strict cuboid. Mobile phone manufacturers have been experimenting with alternative power sources, including solar cells.

[edit] SIM card

In addition to the battery, most cellphones require a small microchip, called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. Approximately the size of a small postage stamp, the SIM Card is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit, and (when properly activated) stores the phone's configuration data, and information about the phone itself, such as which calling plan the subscriber is using. When the subscriber removes the SIM Card, it can be re-inserted into another phone and used as normal.

Each SIM Card is activated by use of a unique numerical identifier; once activated, the identifier is locked down and the card is permanently locked in to the activating network. For this reason, most retailers refuse to accept the return of an activated SIM Card.

Those cell phones that do not use a SIM Card have the data programmed in to their memory. This data is accessed by using a special digit sequence to access the "NAM" as in "Name" or number programming menu. From here, one can add information such as a new number for your phone, new Service Provider numbers, new emergency numbers, change their Authentication Key or A-Key code, and update their Preferred Roaming List or PRL. However, to prevent the average Joe from totally disabling their phone or removing it from the network, the Service Provider puts a lock on this data called a Master Subsidiary Lock or MSL.

The MSL also ensures that the Service Provider gets payment for the phone that was purchased or "leased". For example, the Motorola Razr V9C costs upwards of CAD $500. You can get one from Bell Mobility for approximately $200. The difference is paid by the customer in the form of a monthly bill. If, in this case, Bell Mobility did not use a MSL, then they may lose the $300–$400 difference that is paid in the monthly bill, since some customers would cancel their service and take the phone to another carrier such as Telus, or Verizon. This would eventually put the carrier or in this case, Bell Mobility out of business.

[edit] Usage

[edit] By civilians

This Railfone found on some Amtrak trains in North America uses cellular technology.

See also: List of mobile network operators

An increasing number of countries, particularly in Europe, now have more mobile phones than people. According to the figures from Eurostat, the European Union's in-house statistical office, Luxembourg had the highest mobile phone penetration rate at 158 mobile subscriptions per 100 people (158%), closely followed by Lithuania and Italy.^[6] In Hong Kong the penetration rate reached 139.8% of the population in July 2007.^[7] Over 50 countries have mobile phone subscription penetration rates higher than that of the population and the Western European average penetration rate was 110% in 2007 (source Informa 2007). The U.S. currently has one of the lowest rates of mobile phone penetrations in the industrialized world at 85%.

There are over five hundred million active mobile phone accounts in China, as of 2007, but the total penetration rate there still stands below 50%.^[8] The total number of mobile phone subscribers in the world was estimated at 2.14 billion in 2005.^[9] The subscriber count reached 2.7 billion by end of 2006 according to Informa^{[citation needed]}, and 3.3 billion by November, 2007^[3], thus reaching an equivalent of over half the planet's population. Around 80% of the world's population has access to mobile phone coverage, as of 2006. This figure is expected to increase to 90% by the year 2010.^[10]

In some developing countries with little "landline" telephone infrastructure, mobile phone use has quadrupled in the last decade.^[11] The rise of mobile phone technology in developing countries is often cited as an example of the leapfrog effect. Many remote regions in the third world went from having no telecommunications infrastructure to having satellite based communications systems. At present, Africa has the largest growth rate of cellular subscribers in the world,^[12] its markets expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets.^[13] The availability of prepaid or 'pay-as-you-go' services, where the subscriber is not committed to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth in Africa as well as in other continents.

On a numerical basis, India is the largest growth market, adding about 6 million mobile phones every month.^[14] With 256.55 million total landline and mobile phones, market penetration in the country is still low at 22.52%. India expects to reach 500 million subscribers by end of 2010. Simultaneously, landline phone ownership is decreasing gradually and accounts for approximately 40 million connections.

There are three major technical standards for the current generation of mobile phones and networks, and two major standards for the next generation 3G phones and networks. All European, African and many Asian countries have adopted a single system, GSM, which is the only technology available on all continents and in most countries and covers over 74% of all subscribers on mobile networks. In many countries, such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, India, and South Korea and Vietnam GSM co-exists with other internationally adopted standards such as CDMA and TDMA, as well as national standards such as iDEN in the USA and PDC in Japan. Over the past five years several dozen mobile operators (carriers) have abandoned networks on TDMA and CDMA technologies, switching over to GSM.

With third generation (3G) networks, which are also known as IMT-2000 networks, about three out of four networks are on the W-CDMA (also known as UMTS) standard, usually seen as the natural evolution path for GSM and TDMA networks. One in four 3G networks is on the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology. Some analysts count a previous stage in CDMA evolution, CDMA2000 1x RTT, as a 3G technology whereas most standardization experts count only CDMA2000 1x EV-DO as a true 3G technology. Because of this difference in interpreting what is 3G, there is a wide variety in subscriber counts. As of June 2007, on the narrow definition there are 200 million subscribers on 3G networks. By using the more broad definition, the total subscriber count of 3G phone users is 475 million.

[edit] Culture and customs

Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the mobile phone has gone from being an expensive item used by the business elite to a pervasive, personal communications tool for the general population. In most countries, mobile phones outnumber land-line phones, with fixed landlines numbering 1.3 Billion but mobile subscriptions 3.3 Billion at the end of 2007.

In many markets from Japan and South Korea, to Scandinavia, to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most children age 8-9 have mobile phones and the new accounts are now opened for customers aged 6 and 7. Where mostly parents tend to give hand-me-down used phones to their youngest children, in Japan already new cameraphones are on the market whose target age group is under 10 years of age, introduced by KDDI in February 2007. The USA also lags on this measure, as in the US so far, about half of all children have mobile phones.^[15] In many young adults' households it has supplanted the land-line phone. Mobile phone usage is banned in some countries, such as North Korea and restricted in some other countries such as Burma.^[16]

Given the high levels of societal mobile phone service penetration, it is a key means for people to communicate with each other. The SMS feature spawned the "texting" sub-culture amongst younger users. In December 1993, the first person-to-person SMS text message was transmitted in Finland. Currently, texting is the most widely-used data service; 1.8 billion users generated $80 billion of revenue in 2006 (source ITU). Many phones offer Instant Messenger services for simple, easy texting. Mobile phones have Internet service (e.g. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode), offering text messaging via e-mail in Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Most mobile internet access is much different from computer access, featuring alerts, weather data, e-mail, search engines, instant messages, and game and music downloading; most mobile internet access is hurried and short.

The mobile phone can be a fashion totem custom-decorated to reflect the owner's personality.^[17] This aspect of the mobile telephony business is, in itself, an industry, e.g. ringtone sales amounted to $3.5 billion in 2005.^[18]

The use of a mobile phone is prohibited in some train company carriages

Mobile phone use can be an important matter of social discourtesy: phones ringing during funerals or weddings; in toilets, cinemas and theatres. Some book shops, libraries, bathrooms, cinemas, doctors' offices and places of worship prohibit their use, so that other patrons will not be disturbed by conversations. Some facilities install signal-jamming equipment to prevent their use, although in many countries, including the US, such equipment is illegal. Some new auditoriums have installed wire mesh in the walls to make a Faraday cage, which prevents signal penetration without violating signal jamming laws.

Trains, particularly those involving long-distance services, often offer a "quiet carriage" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking carriage of the past. In the UK however many users tend to ignore this as it is rarely enforced, especially if the other carriages are crowded and they have no choice but to go in the "quiet carriage".^{[citation needed]} In Japan, it is generally considered impolite to talk using a phone on any train -- texting is generally the mode of mobile communication. Mobile phone usage on local public transport is also increasingly seen as a nuisance; the city of Graz, for instance, has mandated a total ban of mobile phones on its tram and bus network in 2008 (though texting is still allowed).^[19][20]

Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited and many airlines claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics; the concern is partially based on the crash of Crossair Flight 498.

[edit] By government agencies

[edit] Law enforcement

Main article: Lawful interception

Law enforcement have used mobile phone evidence in a number of different ways. In the EU the "communications of every mobile telephone user are recorded".^[21] In other countries, evidence about the physical location of an individual at a given time has been introduced by triangulating the individual's cellphone between several cellphone towers. This triangulation technique can be used to show that an individual's cellphone was at a certain location at a certain time. The concerns over terrorism and terrorist use of technology prompted an inquiry by the British House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee into the use of evidence from mobile phone devices, prompting leading mobile telephone forensic specialists to identify forensic techniques available in this area.^[22] NIST have published guidelines and procedures for the preservation, acquisition, examination, analysis, and reporting of digital information present on mobile phones can be found under the NIST Publication SP800-101.^[23]

In the UK in 2000 it was claimed that recordings of mobile phone conversations made on the day of the Omagh bombing were crucial to the police investigation. In particular, calls made on two mobile phones which were tracked from south of the Irish border to Omagh and back on the day of the bombing, were considered of vital importance.^[24]

Further example of criminal investigations using mobile phones is the initial location and ultimate identification of the terrorists of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In the attacks, mobile phones had been used to detonate the bombs. However, one of the bombs failed to detonate, and the SIM card in the corresponding mobile phone gave the first serious lead about the terrorists to investigators. By tracking the whereabouts of the SIM card and correlating other mobile phones that had been registered in those areas, police were able to locate the terrorists.^[25]

[edit] Disaster response

The Finnish government decided in 2005 that the fastest way to warn citizens of disasters was the mobile phone network. In Japan, mobile phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge ^[26]. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones. An interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress.^{[citation needed]} In Finland rescue services suggest hikers carry mobile phones in case of emergency even when deep in the forests beyond cellular coverage, as the radio signal of a cellphone attempting to connect to a base station can be detected by overflying rescue aircraft with special detection gear. Also, users in the United States can sign up through their provider for free text messages when an AMBER Alert goes out for a missing person in their area.

However, most mobile phone networks operate close to capacity during normal times and spikes in call volumes caused by widespread emergencies often overload the system just when it is needed the most. Examples reported in the media where this have occurred include the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Hawaiian earthquake, the 2003 Northeast blackouts, the 2005 London Tube bombings, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse. Thus mobile phones are better for isolated emergencies such as vehicle accidents.

Under FCC regulations, all mobile telephones must be capable of dialing emergency services, regardless of the presence of a SIM card or the payment status of the account.

[edit] Business models

[edit] Tariff models

See also: GSM services#Voice charges

When cellular telecoms services were launched, phones and calls were very expensive and early mobile operators (carriers) decided to charge for all air time consumed by the mobile phone user. This resulted in the concept of charging callers for outbound calls and also for receiving calls. As mobile phone call charges diminished and phone adoption rates skyrocketed, more modern operators decided not to charge for incoming calls. Thus some markets have "Receiving Party Pays" models (also known as "Mobile Party Pays"), in which both outbound and received calls are charged, and other markets have "Calling Party Pays" models, by which only making calls produces costs, and receiving calls is free. An exception to this is international roaming tariffs, by which receiving calls are normally also charged.^{[citation needed]}

The European market adopted a "Calling Party Pays" model throughout the GSM environment and soon various other GSM markets also started to emulate this model. As Receiving Party Pays systems have the undesired effect of phone owners keeping their phones turned off to avoid receiving unwanted calls, the total voice usage rates (and profits) in Calling Party Pays countries outperform those in Receiving Party Pays countries. Consequently, most countries previously with Receiving Party Pays models have either abandoned them or employed alternative marketing methods, such as massive voice call buckets, to avoid the problem of phone users keeping phones turned off.^{[citation needed]}

In most countries today, the person receiving a mobile phone call pays nothing. However, in Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States, one can be charged per minute, for incoming as well as outgoing calls. In the United States and Canada, a few carriers are beginning to offer unlimited received phone calls. For the Chinese mainland, it was reported that both of its two operators will adopt the caller-pays approach as early as January 2007.^[27]

While some systems of payment are 'pay-as-you-go' where conversation time is purchased and added to a phone unit via an Internet account or in shops or ATMs, other systems are more traditional ones where bills are paid by regular intervals. Pay as you go (also known as "pre-pay") accounts were invented simultaneously in Portugal and Italy and today form more than half of all mobile phone subscriptions. USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Japan and Finland are among the rare countries left where most phones are still contract-based.

One possible alternative is a sim-lock free mobile phone. Sim-lock free mobile phones allow portability between networks so users can use sim cards from various networks and not need to have their phone unlocked.

[edit] Impacts

[edit] Human health and behaviour

Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health

Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns (both scientific and public) have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use.^[28] But by 2008, American mobile phones transmited and received more text messages than phone calls.^[29] Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health, but the effect of mobile phone usage on health continues to be an area of public concern.

For example, at the request of some of their customers, Verizon created usage controls that meter service and can switch phones off, so that children could get some sleep.^[29] Other users that some people are working on limiting include persons operating moving trains or automobiles, coaches when writing to potential players on their teams, and movie theater audiences.^[29] By one measure, nearly 40% of automobile drivers aged 16 to 30 years old text while driving, and by another, 40% of teenagers said they could text blindfolded.^[29]

[edit] Safety concerns

As of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the aeroplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft's base station.^[30] Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.^{[citation needed]} Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their travelling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. Qantas, the Australian airline, is the first airline to run a test aeroplane in this configuration in the autumn of 2007.^{[citation needed]} Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.^{[citation needed]} However, in the past, commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the assertion that the frequencies emitted from these devices may disturb the radio waves contact of the airplane.

On March 20, 2008, an Emirates flight was the first time voice calls have been allowed in-flight on commercial airline flights. The breakthrough came after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) granted full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates. Passengers were able to make and receive voice calls as well as use text messaging. The system automatically came into operation as the Airbus A340-300 reached cruise altitude. Passengers wanting to use the service received a text message welcoming them to the AeroMobile system when they first switched their phones on. The approval by EASA has established that GSM phones are safe to use on airplanes, as the AeroMobile system does not require the modification of aircraft components deemed "sensitive," nor does it require the use of modified phones.

In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state "not until the doors are open" on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially prohibited passengers' use of cell phones during a flight.^[31]

In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Etiquette

Most schools in the United States and Europe have prohibited mobile phones in the classroom, or in school due to the large number of class disruptions that result from their use, and the potential for cheating via text messaging^{[citation needed]}. In the UK, possession of a mobile phone in an examination can result in immediate disqualification from that subject or from all that student's subjects.^[32]. Cell phones could be also used for bullying and threats to other students, or displaying inappropriate material in school.

A working group made up of Finnish telephone companies, public transport operators and communications authorities has launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit—what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters.^[33]

Many US cities with subway transit systems underground are studying or have implemented mobile phone reception in their underground tunnels for their riders. Boston, Massachusetts has investigated such usage in their tunnels, although there is a question of usage etiquette and also how to fairly award contracts to carriers.^[34][35]

The issue of mobile communication and etiquette has also become an issue of academic interest. The rapid adoption of the device has resulted in the intrusion of telephony into situations where this was previously not known. This has exposed the implicit rules of courtesy and opened them to reevaluation.^[36]

[edit] Use by drivers

This driver is using two phones at once

Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety

The use of mobile phones by people who are driving has become increasingly common, either as part of their job, as in the case of delivery drivers who are calling a client, or by commuters who are chatting with a friend. While many drivers have embraced the convenience of using their cellphone while driving, some jurisdictions have made the practice against the law, such as the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the United Kingdom, consisting of a zero-tolerance system operated in Scotland and a warning system operated in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Officials from these jurisdictions argue that using a mobile phone while driving is an impediment to vehicle operation that can increase the risk of road traffic accidents.

Studies have found vastly different relative risks (RR). Two separate studies using case-crossover analysis each calculated RR at 4,^[37][38] while an epidemiological cohort study found RR, when adjusted for crash-risk exposure, of 1.11 for men and 1.21 for women.^[39]

A simulation study from the University of Utah Professor David Strayer compared drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% to those conversing on a cell phone, and after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. ^[40] Meta-analysis by The Canadian Automobile Association^[41] and The University of Illinois^[42] found that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving (i.e., an average driver, while talking on a cell phone, has response times of a driver in roughly the 40th percentile).

Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than driving while using a hand-held phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies.^[37][38] epidemiological studies,^[39] simulation studies,^[40] and meta-analysis^[41][42]. Even with this information, California recently passed a cell phone law that requires drivers who are 18 years of age or older to use a hands-free device while using the phone in the vehicle. Moreover, this law also restricts drivers under the age of 18 from using a mobile phone. This law goes into effect on July 1, 2008 with a $20 fine for the first offense and $50 fines for each subsequent conviction. The consistency of increased crash risk between hands-free and hand-held phone use is at odds with legislation in over 30 countries that prohibit hand-held phone use but allow hands-free. Scientific literature is mixed on the dangers of talking on a phone versus those of talking with a passenger, with the Accident Research Unit at the University of Nottingham finding that the number of utterances was usually higher for mobile calls when compared to blindfolded and non-blindfolded passengers,^[43] but the University of Illinois meta-analysis concluding that passenger conversations were just as costly to driving performance as cell phone ones.^[42]

[edit] Environmental impacts

Cellular antenna disguised to look like a tree

Like all high structures, cellular antenna masts pose a hazard to low flying aircraft. Towers over a certain height or towers that are close to airports or heliports are normally required to have warning lights. There have been reports that warning lights on cellular masts, TV-towers and other high structures can attract and confuse birds. US authorities estimate that millions of birds are killed near communication towers in the country each year.^[44]

Some cellular antenna towers have been camouflaged to make them less obvious on the horizon, and make them look more like a tree.

An example of the way mobile phones and mobile networks have sometimes been perceived as a threat is the widely reported and later discredited claim that mobile phone masts are associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which has reduced bee hive numbers by up to 75% in many areas, especially near cities in the US. The Independent newspaper cited a scientific study claiming it provided evidence for the theory that mobile phone masts are a major cause in the collapse of bee populations, with controlled experiments demonstrating a rapid and catastrophic effect on individual hives near masts.^[45] Mobile phones were in fact not covered in the study, and the original researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, mobile phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and created "a horror story".^[46][47][48] While the initial claim of damage to bees was widely reported, the corrections to the story were almost non-existent in the media.

See also: Electronic waste

There are more than 500 million used mobile phones in the US sitting on shelves or in landfills [2], and it is estimated that over 125 million will be discarded this year alone. [3] The problem is growing at a rate of more than two million phones per week, putting tons of toxic waste into landfills daily. Several sites including PaceButler Corporation, TradeMyCell.com, ReCellular, and MyGreenElectronics offer to buy back and recycle mobile phones from users. In the United States many unwanted but working mobile phones are donated to women's shelters to allow emergency communication.

[edit] History

Main article: History of mobile phones

In 1908, U.S. Patent 887,357 for a wireless telephone was issued in to Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this patent to "cave radio" telephones and not directly to cellular telephony as the term is currently understood.^[49] Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1973. A patent for the first wireless phone as we know today was issued in US Patent Number 3,449,750 to George Sweigert of Euclid, Ohio on June 10th, 1969. Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony.^{[citation needed]}

In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile telephones was introduced. 0G mobile phones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not cellular, and so did not feature "handover" from one base station to the next and reuse of radio frequency channels.^{[citation needed]} Like other technologies of the time, it involved a single, powerful base station covering a wide area, and each telephone would effectively monopolize a channel over that whole area while in use. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology are first described in U.S. Patent 4,152,647 , issued May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman, both of Las Vegas, Nevada and assigned by them to the United States Government.

This is the first embodiment of all the concepts that formed the basis of the next major step in mobile telephony, the Analog cellular telephone. Concepts covered in this patent (cited in at least 34 other patents) also were later extended to several satellite communication systems. Later updating of the cellular system to a digital system credits this patent.

Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973.^[50]

The first commercial citywide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system went online in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.^[51] NMT was the first mobile phone system that enabled international use of the phone, or "roaming" on other networks in other countries. This was followed by a boom in mobile phone usage, particularly in Northern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

In 1983, Motorola DynaTAC was the first approved mobile phone by FCC in the United States. In 1984, Bell Labs developed modern commercial cellular technology (based, to a large extent, on the Gladden, Parelman Patent), which employed multiple, centrally-controlled base stations (cell sites), each providing service to a small area (a cell). The cell sites would be set up such that cells partially overlapped. In a cellular system, a signal between a base station (cell site) and a terminal (phone) only need be strong enough to reach between the two, so the same channel can be used simultaneously for separate conversations in different cells.

Cellular systems required several leaps of technology, including handover, which allowed a conversation to continue as a mobile phone traveled from cell to cell. This system included variable transmission power in both the base stations and the telephones (controlled by the base stations), which allowed range and cell size to vary. As the system expanded and neared capacity, the ability to reduce transmission power allowed new cells to be added, resulting in more, smaller cells and thus more capacity. The evidence of this growth can still be seen in the many older, tall cell site towers with no antennae on the upper parts of their towers. These sites originally created large cells, and so had their antennae mounted atop high towers; the towers were designed so that as the system expanded—and cell sizes shrank—the antennae could be lowered on their original masts to reduce range.

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.

The first data services appeared on mobile phones starting with person-to-person SMS text messaging in Finland in 1993. First trial payments using a mobile phone to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine were set in Finland in 1998. The first commercial payments were mobile parking trialled in Sweden but first commercially launched in Norway in 1999. The first commercial payment system to mimick banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first content sold to mobile phones was the ringing tone, first launched in 1998 in Finland. The first full internet service on mobile phones was i-Mode introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999.

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.^{[citation needed][52]}

Until the early 1990s, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital components and the development of more sophisticated batteries, mobile phones have become smaller and lighter.

In the 2000s, video and TV services are driving forward third generation (3G) deployment. In the future, low cost, high speed data may drive forward the fourth generation (4G) as short-range communication emerges. Service and application ubiquity, low cost data delivery, and a high degree of personalization and synchronization between various user appliances will be drivers. At the same time, the radio access network may evolve from a centralized architecture to a distributed one.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Terminology

[edit] Related non-mobile-phone systems

Car phone

A type of telephone permanently mounted in a vehicle, these often have more powerful transmitters, an external antenna and loudspeaker for handsfree use. They usually connect to the same networks as regular mobile phones.

Cordless telephone (portable phone)

Cordless phones are telephones which use one or more radio handsets in place of a wired handset. The handsets connect wirelessly to a base station, which in turn connects to a conventional land line for calling. Unlike mobile phones, cordless phones use private base stations (belonging to the land-line subscriber), and which are not shared.

Professional Mobile Radio

Advanced professional mobile radio systems can be very similar to mobile phone systems. Notably, the IDEN standard has been used as both a private trunked radio system as well as the technology for several large public providers. Similar attempts have even been made to use TETRA, the European digital PMR standard, to implement public mobile networks.

Radio phone

This is a term which covers radios which could connect into the telephone network. These phones may not be mobile; for example, they may require a mains power supply, they may require the assistance of a human operator to set up a PSTN phone call.

Satellite phone

This type of phone communicates directly with an artificial satellite, which in turn relays calls to a base station or another satellite phone. A single satellite can provide coverage to a much greater area than terrestrial base stations. Since satellite phones are costly, their use is typically limited to people in remote areas where no mobile phone coverage exists, such as mountain climbers and mariners in the open sea.