Mobile Telephony: Do you speak Geek on the phone?

Mmmm. Mobile Alphabet Soup. It's hard to take a "byte," the way those letters are swimming around in the airwaves.

Test your knowledge of mobile telephony by taking the following quiz. Click to find the answer or keep track and check against the key at the end.

1. 3G refers to:
A. A $3,000 mobile deployment
B. 3rd generation wireless networks
C. Three gigabytes of memory on a mobile handset
D. gravitational force equal to three times that found on the Earth's surface
Answer

2. Which of the following technologies is 3G?
A. EVDO
B. AMPS
C. CDMA
D. TDMA
Answer

3. "PHS" stands for:
A. Phased Handset Series
B. Periodic Help Signal
C. Personal Handyphone System
D. Parallel Handset Signal
Answer

4. What is the de facto wireless standard in Europe and more than 120 other countries?
A. PCS
B. CDMA
C. GSM
D. WAP
Answer

5. Which wireless technology allows cellular phones to act as modems, work with handsfree headsets and share contacts with other users?
A. Air interface
B. Bluetooth
C. EDGE
D. IR wireless
Answer

6. What year was the first cellular call made?
A. 1958
B. 1967
C. 1973
D.1981
Answer (Look in the last paragraph of the definition.)

7. What is bluesnarfing?
A. Deleting data by accident when transferring files via a Bluetooth connection
B. Stealing information from a device via a Bluetooth connection
C. Sharing an Internet connection through a Bluetooth-enabled device
D. Arranging trysts with other single people on mass transit through Bluetooth networks
Answer

8. What is cell breathing?
A. Changing the range of the area covered by a cellular transmitter based on the amount of traffic that is currently using it
B. A method of cooling next-generation smartphone processors by recirculating air
C. Latent breath sounds used to identify specific users in criminal prosecutions
D. Empty space left after a user ends a voice mail message without actually ending the call
Answer

9. Which phenomenon describes the effect of precipitation on cellular signal strength?
A. Snow drift
B. Drizzle fizzle
C. Shower shout
D. Rain fade
Answer

Did this quiz whet your appetite for more mobile telephony trivia?

Here are two more:
Wireless Quiz and Wireless Protocol Quiz

Are you using your smartphone to chat? Here's a handy list of chat abbreviations you can download to your PDA so that you never miss a beat in your conversations.

Answer Key: 1 (c), 2 (a), 3 (c), 4 (c), 5 (b), 6 (c), 7 (b), 8 (a), 9 (d)