A
mobile phone is a
telephone that can make and receive
calls over a radio frequency carrier while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a
mobile phone operator, which provides access to the
public switched telephone network (PSTN). Most modern mobile telephone services use a
cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are often also called
cellular telephones or
cell phones. In addition to
telephony, modern mobile phones support a variety of other
services, such as
text messaging,
MMS,
email,
Internet access, short-range wireless communications (
infrared,
Bluetooth), business applications, gaming, and photography. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as
smartphones.