The High Price of Cell Phones
Don Hodges
California State University, Los Angeles
Tel. 818-434-5166
E-mail: fantomdj2@hotmail.com
Abstract: Cell Phone technology has gone mainstream
recently. Almost everyone, it seems, has a cell phone or
similar device. The advantages of having this technology
are readily available and promoted in the advertising for
these products, but what about the drawbacks and dangers?
This paper will shine some light on the dark side of
widespread cell phone use, including possible radiation
exposure and brain injury risk, increased risks of vehicle
accidents, the disruptions caused by ringing phones and
those who talk on them in inappropriate places, the
financial costs of monthly fees and surcharges for services,
the high turnover rate of phones resulting in large amounts
of e-waste, hand muscle strains from using tiny keyboards,
and the reduction of face-to-face personal contact.
1. Introduction
Worldwide, over 2 billion people have cell phone
subscriptions, and this number is expected to top 3 billion
this year. 1 The advertising for this technology always
stresses the benefits and, of course, never mentions any
drawback that may arise from the widespread use of these
devices. It is true that cell phones are, in general, quite
beneficial, but there is a price, beyond the monthly fees,
paid by everyone in a society containing high numbers of
cell phone users.
2. Radiation Effects
Possible radiation exposure and brain injuries may result
from carrying and holding cell phones, which, when in use,
broadcast high frequency radio waves at varying power
levels. Microwave ovens typically operate at 2.45 GHz2,
while certain types of popular cell phone networks, such as
3G, operate at 2.5 to 2.7 GHz3, thus the cause for alarm.
Future phones which promise to connect to 802.11g
wireless networks will operate at 2.4 Ghz.
The
International Journal of Cancer recently found that “Longterm users of mobile phones are significantly more likely to
develop a certain type of brain tumor on the side of the
head where they hold their handsets.” 4 However, many
other studies have suggested that no such link exists. In
order to fully comprehend the risks involved, more
thorough and long-term studies need to be done, especially
as usage, frequencies, and phone power levels change.
3. Dialing and Driving
Cell phone users increase their risk of automobile accidents
when using phones while driving. According to a 2005
study from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA), 10 percent of cars on the road
during daylight hours have a driver using a cell phone. The
NHTSA’s advice is “to refrain from using a cell phone
while driving.” 5 Another study done in 2006 by the
NHTSA showed that dialing, or talking, on a hand held
device were the 2nd and 3rd leading causes of car crashes
and near-misses. (The top factor is drowsiness.) 6 Perhaps
these findings, and a dose of common sense, are responsible
for new laws which ban dialing and driving. In California,
a new law effective July 1, 2008, will prohibit drivers from
using a wireless telephone while driving a vehicle unless
the driver uses a hands-free device. Other states have also
placed varying restrictions on using cell phones in a car7.
4. Financial Cost
Consider the financial cost of cell phones. Getting a new
cell phone usually involves entering into a one or two year
contract, and breaking this contract can result in a fee as
high as $250. 8 There are standard fees, which can vary
from $40 to over $100 per month, which usually include a
set number of minutes the phone can be used. Users can
pay as much as 45 cents per minute after exceeding their
allotted time. There are also surcharges for sending and
receiving text (SMS) messages, which can cost up to 15
cents each. A new feature that can send pictures and short
video clips are charged at 25 cents each on Cingular.9 New
ringtones can be downloaded, and at $1.99 each, ringtones
that run only 30 seconds can cost twice as much as the fulllength version of the same song. All of this may be good
news for the cell phone service providers and their
stockholders, but it is an added cost for the billions who pay
these companies every month to keep the communication
device working on their network.
5. Construction and Disposal
The desire to obtain the latest and greatest phone model is
strong for many. The average life of a cell phone is only
about 18 months. Since there are special offers which give
5
1
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6159491.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies
4
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml
?xml=/news/2007/01/25/nmobile25.xml
2
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd30/NCSA/RNotes/2005/809967.pdf
6
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/20/driving.study/
index.html
7
http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=19173
8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022300018.html
9
http://www.cingular.com
new phones for free when new contracts are signed, it is
very easy to see why subscribers will upgrade and discard
their old phones shortly after the old contract expires. The
high turnover may also be due partly to rechargeable power
cells not recharging properly. Given the high number of
cell phone users, this translates into hundreds of millions of
phones being discarded every year worldwide.
A
significant amount of resources goes into making cell
phones, and great care must be taken to ensure that
hazardous materials inside the phones, such as lead,
mercury, cadmium, and arsenic do not contaminate the
environment after the phones are rejected by their users.
6. Text Message Injury
As text messaging becomes more popular, especially
among young people, there are new risks. In New Jersey, a
new law has been proposed to ban sending text messages
while driving a car.10 Also, there is the risk of repetitive
strain injury from typing messages onto tiny keyboards.
According to an online news article from wired.com, “The
growing use of text messaging on mobile phones could
result in an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries, [said the]
director of the British RSI Association ... [he] dubbed the
new epidemic TMI -- or Text Message Injury – [and] said
children especially are prone to painful swelling and
inflammation of the fingers and thumbs from sending so
many text messages on their phones.” 11
7. Camera Phone Misuse
Many cell phones are equipped with digital cameras which
can take pictures and shoot video. This could lead to abuse
when used in places such as public restrooms or movie
theatres. Combined with Internet video sharing sites like
YouTube.com, an embarrassing video or captured movie
can instantly be uploaded and seen by anyone, covered in a
Radar Magazine article titled, “Prisoners of Youtube”.12
Also, piracy of movies is a top concern of the film
industry. The Motion Picture Association of America
reports that the major U.S. motion picture studios lost $6.1
billion in 2005 to piracy worldwide. 13 Currently, some
theatres in Malaysia have had to resort to using militarystyle night-vision goggles to detect people who are
attempting to record movies in their theatres. 14 As cell
phone cameras grow in capacity and become smaller so that
they are not as easily detected, this problem can only
increase in prevalence.
8. Exam Cheating
Cell phones are sometimes used by students to cheat on
tests. The phones are used to take photos of tests and
students text message each other to get answers to exam
questions. "It's a huge problem…It's been going on pretty
much since text messaging was born," said John Becker,
principal of West Campus High School in Sacramento. 15
While students cheating on tests is nothing new, cell phones
and text messaging do offer new ways for students to
discretely communicate during exams.
9. Pornography & Advertising
Pictures and videos on cell phones open up another can of
worms: pornography. This is especially concerning for
parents of young children. These devices make it very easy
for children to take compromising pictures of others, or
themselves, and send them out to the network.
With television and movies on cell phones comes the
natural byproduct of advertising. The early Internet was
largely ad-free, and in a few years the current era might
similarly be remembered as a golden age, before
commercials and other advertising were pushed onto users
through their cell phones. However, it may be too soon to
know how large of a problem these two concerns will
become.
10. The Demise of Pay Phones
and Highway Call Boxes
Cell phones are contributing to the demise of pay phones
and highway call boxes. For example, in January, 2005,
the
Metropolitan
Transportation Commission,
a
transportation agency for the nine-county San Francisco
Bay Area, removed 950 of 3,615 call boxes from the
region’s freeway system, in response to declining call
volumes due to increased cell phone usage. 16 Similar
removals of call boxes are occurring in many other states.
As a result, people who suffer car breakdowns and do not
own cell phones will, on average, have to walk greater
distances along the highway to reach a call box, than they
did before the boxes were removed.
Pay phones are also being removed from service in
great numbers. An April, 2002 article from Columbia
News Service states:
“The number of pay phones
nationwide has decreased nearly 30 percent since 1996,
from 2.6 million to 1.9 million, according to statistics from
the Federal Communications Commission. Many
companies are trying to get out of what they say is an
unprofitable business. BellSouth plans to sell all of its
144,000 pay phones within two years.” 17 Newer data
suggests the trend is continuing: an August 2006 TimesTribune article states, “In the past nine years, a million pay
phones have been shut off in the United States — nearly a
50 percent decrease. Competition with cellular phone
companies and maintenance costs [has] led to a 10 percent
to 12 percent drop in the number of pay phones each year
10
http://www.physorg.com/news94228669.html
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/news/
2001/05/43875
12
http://www.radaronline.com/from-themagazine/2007/02/prisonersofyoutube.php
13
http://www.mpaa.org/2006_05_03leksumm.pdf
14
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews
/idUSKLR25022120070525
11
15
http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0509/24/
0scho-325779.htm
16
http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/meeting_packet
_documents/agenda_507/kk-_CBx_Reduction.doc
17
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-0430/511.asp
for the past decade, according to the Federal
Communications Commission.” 18 The reduction in the
availability of pay phones means a much greater
inconvenience for people who use them regularly.
11. Privacy Concerns
People’s location can be tracked using their cell phone.
According to the privacyrights.org web site 19, “In the past,
your general location could be verified by looking at
…phone records to determine which tower was used …
Now, [the] location can often be pinpointed in real time if
[the] phone is turned on. Most current-model phones now
include Global Positioning System (GPS) chips, which can
determine [the phone’s] coordinates by connecting to
satellites. It is likely that the trend of including locationtracking components will continue … [an FCC] initiative
requires cell phone carriers to be able to pinpoint their
customers' location within 100 meters … However, phones
with GPS chips can actually find [them] within a few feet.”
Some might say this is an unwarranted invasion of personal
privacy.
The U.S. government can eavesdrop on a cell phone
conversation, even when the phone is turned off. An
ABCNews.com article explains, “The FBI can listen to
everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned
off…The FBI has the ability from a remote location to
activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a
listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post …
Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell
phone battery.”20
Figure 1 - A Cell Phone Bomb Trigger found in Iraq
12. Bomb Triggers
Another consideration is the use of cell phones for the
detonation of bombs. While terrorists and insurgents would
find other ways to trigger their destructive devices if cell
phones were unavailable, cell phones do offer them a cheap
and easy way to do it. In response to this knowledge, when
U.S. President George Bush visits Australia in September
2007, he will be shadowed by a cell phone jamming
helicopter.21 This probably indicates action that is needed
to be taken whenever the President goes anywhere that is
considered a security risk.
13. Other Losses
It is almost impossible to travel anywhere (in Los Angeles
at least) without seeing a cell phone tower sticking up by
the side of the road. A cellular network requires many cell
phone towers to be constructed.
These towers are
considered unattractive to some, leading to some cell phone
towers built to look like trees, or built into existing
structures like flag poles.
There are many places where a ringing cell phone is an
unwelcome disruption, such as classrooms, concert halls,
libraries, restaurants, churches, and movie theatres, creating
a social nuisance. Many of these locations post notices
warning people to turn their cell phone ringers off, but these
reminders are often ignored, leaving the victims to long for
a day long past, when telephones only rang at home or at
work.
Finally, consider some of the social ramifications of
widespread cell phone use. Communication which involves
face to face conversations can convey more information
than those which are carried over a phone or through other
electronic means. Body language, facial expressions, and
eye contact are all lost when using a phone. It is much
harder to measure this loss, but it must be taken into
account when direct human contact is diminished.
14. Conclusions
This paper has examined some of the consequences of the
widespread use of cell phones. One must be careful
whenever adopting a new technology. Serious questions
must be asked about its overall use, risks, and long term
social changes which are likely to occur if and when
virtually everyone starts using it. As this technology
rapidly advances, even more questions arise about the
validity of having so much connectedness and computing
power constantly taking our attention.
New phones, such as Apple’s iPhoneTM, promise
to deliver even more features to their users (at an even
higher cost), and we must question whether or not we really
need to have our mp3 collection, GPS, and the power of the
Internet with us at all times and in all places, and what the
long term and social ramifications might be. Watching
movies and television shows on a cell phone might sound
advantageous at first, but what happens when this is done
by many people and in inappropriate settings? What is one
supposed to do when the person standing next to him is
watching commercials or pornography on his phone?
Who finally pays the price? As we have seen, just
about everyone pays the high price of cell phones, even
those who do not even own one.
18
http://www.thetimestribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17020238
19
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs2b-cellprivacy.htm#4
20
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/
can_you_hear_me.html
21
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/
soa/Banned-Mobile-calls-while-Bush-inSydney/0,130061791,339277444,00.htm
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Texting While Driving,” March 27, 2007.
[11] Elisa Batista, “Sore Thumb? Talk More, Type Less,”
Wired.com website, May 25, 2001.
[12] John Cook, “Prisoners of YouTube,” Radar Magazine,
February 9, 2007.
[13] “The Cost of Movie Piracy,” an analysis prepared by
LEK for the Motion Picture Association, May, 2006.
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nab pirates,” May 25, 2007.
[15] Melissa Dahl, “High-tech cheating comes to high
schools,” The Sacramento Bee, September 24, 2005.
[16] Steve Heminger, Memo to SAFE Operations
Committee, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
website, July 1, 2005.
[17] Daniel Barrick, “Charting the payphone's demise, one
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