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MOBILE PHONE CONNECTIONS Dear Editor: You have some great arti cles in NEXUS. I would! like to comment on "Mobile Phones' Hidden Agenda" in Letters to the Editor [vol. 3#2]. A phone company (PC), like many mobile phone communication carriers, con trols up to thirty receiving/transmi tting parameters an your mobile phone. Each single mobile phone (MP) is controlled by the mobile telephone network computer (MTNC). A) When you switch on your mobile phone, immediately your MP wi]] send a pulse to any PC receiving station on the connection channel. As soon as your MP is switched on, it will start communicating with the 'best' tower and its MTNe. This is totaUy independent of your receiving, transmitting, talking, listening or standing by. These connections and status pulses are not picked up by ~he ---- parameters in MTNC), then your MP will has a good idea where your MP is. Very be put in a roaming mode-which means simple mathematics in that case, and a that instead of giving your position to the good enough result. By just switching on network every 30 minutes, your MP will be your MP, the PC will have a good idea transmitting every three seconds. You where your MP is in relation to the differ have no manual control on this. This is ent PC towers. The location of your trans done automaticaHy by the MTNC which mission is very much dependent on the ter controls your MP. During that time, you rain you are surrounded by. may be handed over from one tower to Yes, your PC may be able Ito detect if another. The network computer will you are travelling and how fast you are always try to choose the best 30 parameters travelling. But in a case like this, a more for you, so you can have the best reception sophisticated software must interpret the and best transmission possible with the data coming from the MTNe. This inter least interference possible. That is one of pretation will depend on the terrain, the reasons why you may drain your bat foliage, weather, etc., and the configuration tery in the roaming mode because your MP of the network. The result may be an accu is forced to transmit your MP status every racy of a few metres or a few kilometres. three seconds rather than every 30 minutes. To find the position of something, the usual E) When you make a call or receive a method is called "triangulation", but this call, you are transferred to a different com may not require three receiving antennas or munication channel, called talked channcl devices. These days one receiving device human ear and (TC). The monitoring of these thirty para is sufficient; maybe two receiving devices .usually are not reaching your receiving meters will happen without your knowing in the case of a mobile phone. headphone. Your MP transmits a pulse on it is happening. All these connection puls Yes, I agree that a mobile phone may be the connection channel (CC), which con es are totally transparent to any voice com· a radiation-emitting ID tag if you switch it tains: • the identification of your phone munication. You can not hear your MP on-not if you switch it off. To have trans which corresponds to your mobile tele being adjusted by the MTNC. All these mission when the MP is switched off, we phone number which, in turn, has your parameters are proprietary information arc talking of resonant circuitry which is name and address attached to it in the com which is difficult to obtain. possible, but improbable due to the mil puter data banks; • the type of phone you In the case of the' Mobile Phones letter to lions of phones which may respond to the are using; • the power at which you are the editor, yes, a PC, by using a special same command. transmitting; • other proprietary informa positioning software, can pinpoint accu I hope I have answered some of the ques tion specific to your phone on the particular rately the location of your transmission if tions raised in Letters to the Editor last phone network. you are in an area with few Itclecommuni issue by Neil C. from North Yorkshire, B) One of the best PC receiving stations cat,ion obstacles. Because your MP trans England. will transmit back to you on another Ce. It mits its position all the time, you don't need G. M., Corinda, will: • adjust remotely the power of your to talk or receive on your MP. The MTNC Queensland, Australia. MP (if you are too close or too far from the receiving tower); • adjust some characteris tic of your MP. C) Without your moving, because aU this is done in a mattcr of seconds, rthe MTNC wiH decide if it is better to hand you over to the receiving/transmitting tow ers A, B, C or D or any number of towers located miles apart. These are the PC tow ers which have received your signal. It doesn't matter h.ow faint your signal may have been received. D) If your signal at the PC tower is received below 70 microvolts (it may vary depending on the manual tuning of the APRIL-MAY 1996 NEXUS • 51