call delivery to cell phones
Dec. 31st, 2008 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tsukikageSo, my Google-fu is failing me, and I was wondering if one of you could either answer this question or point me to an explanatory link:
When someone calls your cell phone, how does the signal get from your cell carrier to your phone? In other words, how does T-Mobile, for example, find YOUR phone among ALL the phones in the world? My best guess is that every so often every phone sends a signal to the nearest tower informing the network of that number's relative location, and then when a call is received the carrier sends out a general signal to all phones in that geographic area, and the right one says "yeah, it's me, give it here" and decodes the signal while the rest of the phones in the area just shrug it off and move on with their inanimate lives.
When someone calls your cell phone, how does the signal get from your cell carrier to your phone? In other words, how does T-Mobile, for example, find YOUR phone among ALL the phones in the world? My best guess is that every so often every phone sends a signal to the nearest tower informing the network of that number's relative location, and then when a call is received the carrier sends out a general signal to all phones in that geographic area, and the right one says "yeah, it's me, give it here" and decodes the signal while the rest of the phones in the area just shrug it off and move on with their inanimate lives.
