cellular

Long dominated by three companies, the mobile phone market will see a big change later this year.

Wisconsin-based communications company Sanswire has introduced an almost-finished prototype for its "Stratellite," an unmanned airship that can deliver mobile phone signals from Earth's stratosphere.

While the clarity on your cell phone may be increasing, the overall picture of wireless technology is becoming progressively murkier. New terms and services seem to spin off of the presses every day, and it’s hard to separate what you need to know from what you don’t. What do all those acronyms mean? Most are specific ways of transmitting what amounts to the same kind of signals. Different phones depend on different technologies, and many of these are manufacturer-dependent.