INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

1. Since its introduction in the late 1970s and early 1980s, mobile telephony has undergone an enormous expansion. As the size and weight of the mobile phone itself has shrunk, the networks have become more powerful, the market has grown and the cost of equipment and airtime has declined sharply. At the same time, the services available – such as voice banks, call forwarding and data transmission – have also increased the attractiveness of the product, especially for the business user. Much of the development has been due to the intense competition in the mobile market, which is less regulated than the fixed telephone market.

2. The two main types of technology in use are analogue and digital. The first systems to be introduced were analogue; these are still the most used, and they offer the widest coverage within most countries. Digital systems are a more recent introduction, and they are becoming increasingly common throughout the world. They have several advantages over analogue, notably their capacity, reliability and security. They also offer extra services, especially for business customers. In addition, although some analogue systems allow the user to “roam” within a certain number of countries, digital systems give greater flexibility, which could soon include world-wide roaming.

3. GSM – Global System for Mobile communication – is the pan-European digital standard which is rapidly spreading throughout Europe and is also establishing itself as the standard in other parts of the world. The main threat to GSM comes from CDMA, a code-division multiple access technology which uses frequencies more economically than the time-division system (TDMA) used by GSM. The advantages of CDMA, a rapidly developing technology, may give it a competitive edge over GSM, especially in markets like the USA where the airwaves are already crowded. The general prediction is that digital systems, of whichever technology, will gradually take over from analogue systems, especially in the more developed markets. However, recent trends suggest that in established markets the transfer is happening more slowly than was forecast. If one system is widely adopted, the regular traveller can have just one mobile phone which she or he uses whilst on the move in a number of countries.

VI. Read paragraph 1 of the text and answer the questions.

VII. Read paragraph 2 and name the advantages of digital systems.

VIII. Look through paragraphs 1 and 2 and find English equivalents of the following words and word combinations.

Преимущество, надежность, сокращать, уменьшать(ся), покрытие, хотя, мощность(емкость), огромный, чрезвычайно, эфирное время, внедрять.

IX. Say whether the following statements are true or false.

X. Complete the following sentences choosing the most suitable variant.

XI. Read the second sentence of paragraph 3 and mark pauses. Divide it into sense groups, find out the means of connection between these sense groups and between the words in each group.

XII. Translate paragraph 3 into Russian.

XIII. Make an outline of the text.

XIV. Speak about the development of mobile communications and its advantages.

Part B

I. Define the meaning of the “x” word:

II. Find in the list the following parts of speech: a) nouns, b) adjectives, c) adverbs, d) verbs.

Necessary, customer, extensively, popularity, competition, network, communication, steadily, connection, enormously, successful, equipment, variety, frequency, attractive, commercial, potential, decision.

III. Complete the sentences with the following words:

IV. Read the text and say which paragraph contains the information about the predicted rate of increase in mobile connections by the year 2010.