1 What can people use for their communication? Make a list of communication instruments.
2 Inwhat ways did primitive people communicate?
3 Do you practice body language? When and why? Give examples to explain.
4 Enumerate all possible ways to send written messages.
5 Have a partner in the class and use your mobile telephone to send him/her a message that your teacher will dictate. Check the time to find out the fastest sender of the same message. Who is the most mobile in the class?
6 Make sure you understand easily the word combinations from the text. Translate them whenever necessary:
face-to-face speech, simple text messages, global mobile communications market, personal communication systems, wireless digital systems, transportable communications systems, technical challenges, additional channels, mobile communications industry, traditional service industry supply chains.
11 What ideas about the text do you have after practicing some vocabulary from it?
12 Read the text.
Mobile Communications
Until a few thousand years ago, the only way people could communicate was through face-to-face speech and sometimes looking at a simple drawing. Then humanity learnt how to write. Over centuries we developed a variety of ways to send written messages between people. A major leap forward came with the invention of the telegraph, which enables us to send simple text messages around the world in minutes. A hundred and thirty years ago the telephone came on to the scene and changed the world forever. It magnified our ability to communicate by speech. Then came the fax, which allowed us to deliver written messages and images to each other within seconds. More recently, we have seen the explosion in the use of communications technology through the mass take up of mobile phones, the Internet, e-mail, videoconferencing and so on. Each of these provides us with an additional channel through which we can exchange ideas and information.
There is an increased desire for communications systems to be more mobile. This is reflected by the rapid growth in the global mobile telecommunications market. People have a need to communicate with each other both for practical and personal reasons. In the future we are likely to see enhanced mobility as personal communication systems become more widely distributed. Society will never be out of touch. We will be able to communicate using a variety of voice, data and images ( eventually 3-D ) anywhere via wireless digital systems 24 hours a day.
Communications technology will be more personalized and will grow more user friendly and accessible as customers become more technologically aware. Such advances will lead to the development of a host of services that could be delivered via these more transportable communications systems. These services would not only enrich our personal lives, they could also improve the way in which we work and interact at a professional level. They could provide a channel for all the information we use, covering every aspect of daily life.
There are of course technical challenges to overcome
before such dreams become a reality. However, developments in the mobile communications industry, like those outlined above, will carry implications for many other industries as they begin to remove stages of the traditional service industry supply chains.