The Cell phone is becoming king and the land line phone is gradually becoming obsolete. Recent reports from different parts of the world point to the steady decline in the number of landline phones. The cellular phone or more properly the mobile phone, is stepping into the breach.

Maybe we should refer rather to mobile phones.

In North America, we refer to the manner in which these phones operate - a wireless connection is made from a phone to a transmitter. The coverage area of the transmitter is called a cell. As the user moves from one area to another so too is the connection from one cell to another. 800MHz and 1900MHz are the frequencies used by different networks.

Our cell phones have worked well – to a degree. The degree was determined by the area we were in and  the cell coverage in that area. But most of us have experienced dropped calls, or passing through area where we have been “told” by our cell phone “no service.” Frustrating? Yes.

Along comes Wi-Fi or Wireless Fidelity….wireless networking, which uses the 802.11b wireless protocol. We could find “hotspots” – which provided LAN (Local Area Network) coverage. Wireless Fidelity. Otherwise known as Wireless Networking, Wi-Fi uses the 802.11b protocol.

Problem was our ordinary cell phones had the different wireless protocol 800MHz and 1900MHz and so didn’t work. We could connect wirelessly to the internet.

Help was on the way when a number of manufacturers came up with dual mode phones – they worked with the “cell” phone protocol and Wifi.

Major cellphone vendors, Nokia and Motorola, HP and others provide Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones and the list gets longer.

T-Mobile, Cingular, Sprint are among carriers providing dual mode cellphones.