On Mar 30, 8:02*pm, Graham Nye wrote:


IIRC they were also called cell phones in the UK back when analogue
cellular systems were new, complete with diagrams of hexagonal cells
covering the countryside. Mention of cell or cellular has fallen out
of use in the UK to be replaced by "mobile". But language keeps
moving on and for younger people (say, teens and twenties) mobiles
may just be referred to as "phones" now, as landline phones are
something only their parents will have.

In a Britsh TV show aired in the US, a teen referred to her cellular
phone as her "mobile", pronounced with three distinct syllables (mo bi
al). In the US, the word often comes out as two syllables, as "mo
bowl".

Curiously, some landline phones in the building were rotary--are
rotary sets still used in Britain?

Charles Ellson wrote:
On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:08:36 +0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
wrote:

Graham Nye wrote:
On 30/03/2012 18:40, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Guy Gorton wrote:

What is a cell phone? Used in prisons?

Oh, good grief. You use the concept in your country.

You aren't aware that mobile phones use a cellular network?

I expect he is. Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

In the United States, they are called cell phones and mobile phones.

Ditto in the UK with "cell phone" often used to distinguish them from
"cordless" telephones, both being mobile.


I had a very early Vodafone mobile phone in 1986, a Motorola with a
handset that clipped to the top of a lead/acid battery about the size
of one on my 1150cc motorcycle. It was marketed as a "cellular
telephone" or "cell phone" for short.

There were only two UK networks at that time, Vodafone and Cellnet.
Cellnet was of course a contraction of "cellular network".

So the term "cell phone" has been in use in the UK for more than a
quarter of a century.

On Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:10:00 +0900, Miles Bader wrote:

Graham Nye writes:
Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

It's fine with me. If you're not interested in how things are done
in the UK why are you cross-posting to UK newsgroups?

Wait, what exactly is the argument here...?

It's more of a linguistic study; nobody has queried anyone else's
intelligence or parentage yet. ;-)

I mean, it's not as if anybody was actually confused by what Adam said...

I think someone anticipated him causing confusion but was reassured
that we haven't been confused.

Please PLEASE end this thread!

Graham Nye writes:

IIRC they were also called cell phones in the UK back when analogue
cellular systems were new, complete with diagrams of hexagonal cells
covering the countryside. Mention of cell or cellular has fallen out
of use in the UK to be replaced by "mobile".

Possibly because at that time, the term 'mobile phone' was often used
for a phone permanently fitted in a car or other vehicle. ISTR that if
you wanted to call one (from a landline) you had to go via the 'mobile
operator'.

In message , at 19:41:35 on Fri, 30 Mar
2012, Graham Nye remarked:
You aren't aware that mobile phones use a cellular network?

I expect he is. Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

Some people call them mobiles, innit. But plenty of people still talk
about "mobile phones" and to pretend you don't know that the US-English
for a mobile phone is a cell phone is simply ludicrous.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 15:30:13 on Fri, 30 Mar
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
to distinguish the technology from pre-cellular mobile telephones that
were built into automobiles and communicated with base stations with
much longer ranges than transponders on cell towers.

Are you referring to "radio telephones"?

There were cellular car phones as well, back before handheld models were
available.

My recollection is that the first cellular phones were handheld. But
they were heavy and nor very "portable". As a result it was helpful to
mount them in a car, which had other attractions like dealing with the
battery problem and making them less easy to steal. It was also the case
that the kind of demographic who was prepared to fit one in his usually
expensive motor car was very creditworthy and made lots of calls, no
expense spared.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 23:14:18 on
Fri, 30 Mar 2012, Frank Erskine remarked:
My current "favourite" Americanism is the announcement on a delayed
aeroplane that "the airplane will be taking off momentarily".

I'm usually more worried when they say it will be "landing momentarily".
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 10:12:06 on Sat,
31 Mar 2012, Graham Murray remarked:
IIRC they were also called cell phones in the UK back when analogue
cellular systems were new, complete with diagrams of hexagonal cells
covering the countryside. Mention of cell or cellular has fallen out
of use in the UK to be replaced by "mobile".

Possibly because at that time, the term 'mobile phone' was often used
for a phone permanently fitted in a car or other vehicle. ISTR that if
you wanted to call one (from a landline) you had to go via the 'mobile
operator'.

They were called Radiophones (and Radiophone operators).

http://www.storno.co.uk/radiophone.htm
--
Roland Perry

Miles Bader wrote on 31 March 2012 02:10:00 ...
Graham writes:
Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

It's fine with me. If you're not interested in how things are done
in the UK why are you cross-posting to UK newsgroups?

Wait, what exactly is the argument here...?

That people are continually posting to uk.transport.london (a) about
non-transport non-London matters, and (b) with an assumption that their
audience is American or at any rate understands US-only variants of
English. 971 posts so far in this thread, according to Google Groups.

Follow-ups set to exclude u.t.l
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)