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From: cyamamot%aludra.usc.edu@usc.edu (Cliff Yamamoto)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: A Couple Tech Questions About Cellular Phones
Message-ID: <9941@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 19 Jul 90 20:54:43 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 500, Message 7 of 12


Greetings!

I've been reading this group lately and though I may be out of my
league with many of those who read here, I hope this is not a silly
question.

I recently got a cellular phone and have some questions.  This may be
a rumor, but I've heard that *all* cellular phones have the capability
to have their microphones/xmitters activated by the switching office?
Is this true?  Does that mean if I leave the power on, they can
actually "bug" the area my phone is left in?  Are there any other
"unusual" functions that can be performed on my phone w/o me knowing?

Secondly, I haven't had any dropped calls yet, but can anyone explain
the heuristic used for the following: say you are leaving a cell and
the cell you are approaching is completely tied up.  Will the cell you
are leaving boost your xmitter power and keep you on as long as
possible, or will it drop you?  I would hope it would keep you going
on a marginal transmission until you can gracefully kill your call or
until the tied up cell becomes freed.

I hope someone out there can enlighten me on these questions.  If
there is *A* reference book out there (like some sort of IEEE or ANSI
publication) about cellular phone, please let me know.


Thanks,

Cliff Yamamoto