Technological developments and socio-economic issues of wireless mobile communications

During the last 10 years, wireless communications can be considered as the fastest growing segment of telecommunications. In fact, mobile telephones have become an everyday accessory for hundreds of million people, and they are increasingly being used in the most developed and many developing countries in the world. Current forecasts indicate that demands for wireless access will exceed the number of fixed access lines by year 2010. This paper examines the technological developments, as well as the worldwide social-economic impacts of wireless mobile communications. More specifically, it gives an overview on the technological developments of wireless mobile communications, describes the evolution towards the next-generation systems, analyzes the reasons for the growth rate of subscribers, and the related social development. As a conclusion, it suggests several solutions in response to dangerous behaviour generated by wireless terminals.