On Mar 30, 4:08*pm, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

In the United States, they are called cell phones and mobile phones.
Some networks marketed the service with one term or the other. I believe
"cell" was the marketing term by some networks in early days to
distinguish the technology from pre-cellular mobile telephones that
were built into automobiles and communicated with base stations with
much longer ranges than transponders on cell towers.

As an aside, the radiophone system aboard the Metroliner trains was a
pioneer application of celluar technology. Unlike prior mobile phone
systems, as the train travelled between radio zones, the conversation
was seamlessly switched to the next zone. There were multiple
channels, automatically selected and assigned. Passengers aboard the
train could dial direct outward. There were special cells within the
Baltimore tunnels because of poor radio transmission.

In the 1980s-1990s, some passenger lines put public pay cell phones
aboard their trains for passengers' convenience. But after a short
time a great many people had their own cell phones so the public units
were superflorous.