From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion-enough to provide one for every person on Earth. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world's first cellular network in Japan. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c. The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, video games, and digital photography.

Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and, therefore, mobile telephones are called cellular telephones or cell phones, in North America. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A mobile phone, known as a cell phone in North America, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area.

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