text: cell phone? why is a "mobile phone" called a "cell phone"? what is the meaning of "cell" in mobile phone? cell phone is short for cellular phone.  cellular refers to the technology used.  also, a mobile phone can almost be considered as just about any phone that can leave a base and does not have a cord.  as quoted from source:    "term used currently in the united states and canada (and in other countries as well during the 1980s) to refer to most mobile phones. it technically applies specifically to mobile phones which use a cellular network. in developing mobile phone technology, american electrical engineers saw the main technical problem as achieving a smooth handoff from one radio antenna to the next. after the name "cell" was applied to the zone covered by each antenna, it was a natural choice for them to apply the term "cellular" to both the technology and the phones that ran on it."