A mobile phone is a device which behaves as a normal telephone whilst being able to move over a wide area (cf. cordless phone which acts as a telephone only within a limited range). Mobile phones allow connections to be made to the telephone network, normally by directly dialling the other party's number on an inbuilt keypad. Most current mobile phones use a combination of radio wave transmission and conventional telephone circuit switching, though packet switching is already in use for some parts of the mobile phone network, especially for services such as internet access and WAP.

Mobile phones are designed to work on cellular networks. Before the phone can be used, a subscription to a mobile phone operator is required. The operator will issue a SIM card which contains the unique subscription and authentication parameters for that customer. Once the SIM card is inserted into the phone, services can be accessed. Mobile phones do not only support voice calls; they can also send and receive data and faxes (if a computer is attached), send short messages (or "text messages"; see SMS), access WAP services, and provide full Internet access using technologies such as GPRS.