The Death of the "Cell Phone"

PreacherTom writes "Once upon a time, the now-eponymous portable derived its name from the small sections (deemed "cells") into which a city was divided in order to keep voice calls smooth and uninterrupted. Today, it almost seems that voice calls are the least-used function of most phones, while Wi-Fi and WiMax use ever-growing amounts of network bandwidth. Both make the "cellular" moniker obsolete. Is it time for a new name, or is a rose by any other name still as sweet?"

As a linguist...

[Half-pint HAL]

As a linguist, I always found the term cellphone quite curious.

From the start, it seemed unlikely to catch on, as the cell bit was meaningless to anyone but a techy or geek. The UK term seems far more meaningful to the average user: mobile phone.

So why did cellphone catch on? I'm forced to assume that it's because it sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick.

So:

If the average user doesn't associate cellphone with a particular technology, and the change in technology is seamless and transparent (and if it isn't, take-up will be very slow), then to the people that matter -- average Joe and average Jo -- there won't be any need for a new name.

HAL.

Re:We already have one

[Josh Lindenmuth]

'Mobile phone' is certainly more descriptive of our phones' usage, but to say that we no longer use cells is just plain uninformed. Until we are all communicating to each other via satellite, the world will be divided into small cells for mobile phones to utiliize. While the density of these cells may be much greater than 10 years ago, they still exist (as anyone who has driven off a major road or through the country can attest), and phones still negotiate with many different towers while moving from cell to cell during a call.

Even if we were using satellite, there would still need to be cells of sorts, they would just be much larger (e.g. thousands or even millions of square miles instead of 5 to 100's of square miles for today's cells).

Re:source please

[Kohath]

I, for one, would like to see more prevalent use of critical reading skills.

On that note, I'd like to assert that the author of this piece almost seems to be living in a fantasy world. Apparently, they have WiMax phones there.

language is a museum

[cucucu]

Long after things go away, words stay. Examples from telephony:

• You can "dial" without a dial [google.com].
  
• You can send SMS using your "phone" without uttering a single phone [wikipedia.org].
  
• According to TFA, you will be able to use your cellphone without cells [wikipedia.org].
  

I once read that numbers still reflect the way our ancestors related to number. At first they thought that two and half are two completely separate entities. Soon they discovered that each number is related to its fraction (three --> third, four --> fourth, etc). This is true in English as well as in the other (two) languages I speak.
So let our language reflect the story of telephony too.

Re:I nominate:

[Volante3192]

So, unless you turn it off or leave it behind,

Or my favorite, just ignore it.

Tactics for not being interrupted

[beezly]

So, unless you turn it off or leave it behind, you are always at someone beck and call.

I have a few tactics for not being interrupted;

• Turn the phone off. I use this when I absolutely must not be interrupted. I don't do this often.
• Set to silent and ignore. I use this when I don't want to be interrupted but I do want to know I received a call. That way I can get back to the person when it is convenient for me. I use this less frequently.
• Set to silent and evaluate the call when it rings. I use this more when I am happy to be interrupted. I will likely answer the call so long as it announces the CLI to me. If you hide or don't send CLI me when you ring, I am very unlikely to answer - leave me a voicemail. If I don't want to speak to you, I will not answer - leave me a voicemail. I use this very frequently.
• Set the phone to ring. If I am expecting a phone call from some one that I really don't want to miss (especially if I am in a different room from my phone), I set it to ring. I don't use this very often.

This gives me four ways to screen incoming calls that I wouldn't have with a non-CLI enabled, non voicemail enabled "land" line. With a land line my options are;

• Unplug phone. I will miss all calls and I will be unaware that received any.
• Ignore phone. I will miss all calls. I will be aware that I received calls, but I will not be aware who rang (unless I use something like BT 1471).
• Answer the phone.

I prefer the choices that a mobile gives me.

Re:We already have one

[Mixel]

Check out SqueakyMoPho [hbmobile.org].

Re:the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

In Portugal it's a "telemóvel" ("telefone" is telephone, "móvel" is mobile), but most people now-a-days say just "móvel" or "telelé", which is a play on words of "telemóvel" and the sound it makes when it rings. However, people use just "telefone" (telephone) to mean mobile telephone, and specifically say "fixo" (fixed) when referring to a landline, because they're fast becoming obsolete, many people are starting to rely only on mobiles or VoIP for their telephony needs (I don't live in Portugal anymore, moved to Spain in 2004, but I haven't had a landline since 2001, not there and not here either. My folks cancelled their landline last year too, and now we (plus my sister that lives 500km away from them) talk almost everyday by VoIP)

Ah, yes, in Spain it's also called a "móvil", a mobile.