Mobile phone

The typical hysteria around mobile phones and mobile networks is seen in the widely reported and immediately totally 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.[26] 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".[27][28][29] It should be pointed out that if this CCD would be caused by mobile phones, then beekeepers in countries with advanced use of mobile phones such as those in Scandinavia, Italy, Portugal, Austria etc should have seen these effects years earlier than the USA. But this finding was uniformly and globally dismissed by all from the telecoms industry to animal safety experts and even beekeepers worldwide. While the initial claim of damage to bees was widely reported, the corrections to the story were almost non-existent in the media.
Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and country to country. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic radio waves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building. The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, usually not more than 5 to 8 miles (approximately 8 to 13 kilometers) 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 will 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. As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will "handoff" to various cell sites during calls, or while waiting (idle) between calls it will reselect cell sites.
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. Third generation networks are still being deployed, started with Japan in 2001, are all digital and offer high speed data access in addition to voice services and include WCDMA known also as UMTS, and CDMA2000 EV-DO. China will launch a third 3G technlogy on the TD-SCDMA standard. Each network operator has a unique radio frequency band.

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