Describe the Developments in Mobile Phone Services, and Access the Impact of This Phenomenon on Society in Your Country.

ESSAY 2 COVERSHEET

Title:
Describe the developments in mobile phone services, and access the impact of this phenomenon on society in your country.

Nowadays, mobile phones – Technological and portable communication devices, have been an important role in people’s lives. Mobile phone services, which are the programme on these devices , have been developed from the primary functions to various advanced services and applications. The improvement of mobile phone services and the evaluation of the impact on Thai society are portrayed in this essay. The development of mobile phone services is related to the mobile phone development. In the early 1970s, the first version of mobile phones was invented, which implemented with 1G- the analogue mobile network generation, According to the limitation of its service; only voice communication and the expensive products, these devices were used by almost people who involved in the business sector. After that mobile phones had become the popular device but the problems was emerged. Matt Warman (2010) claimed that 2G –the digital systems (GSM), which is the second mobile network generation, had been improved to solve the increase of dropped calls and it was the beginning of the mobile phone services such as the Short Message Service (SMS), Internet services and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) in the mid 1990s. And In the 2000s, smart phones -the multifunctional devices have been modified from basic mobile phones and implemented with 3G the higher capable data service network, are now used for various purposes. This latest mobile phone generation provides a wide spectrum of communication; video calling, live chat and also individual user services such as entertainment application, multimedia application, transaction services via mobile-internet.

Mobile phone usage has spread to almost all parts of Thailand. According to the statistical information from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Thailand (2011), the increase of Thai mobile phone users has significantly risen from 21.7 million users (36.7 per cent) in 2005 to 41.4 million users (66.4 per cent) in 2011. This means mobile phone services, which are the parts of mobile phones, have been used by more than half of the population. As a result the services have positive and negative effects on Thai society essentially.
There are two positive effects of mobile phone services. First, Thai people are more enthusiastic to update the news and informations by accessing the internet services or social applications on their mobile phones. So they can select the up-to-date support informations to considerate on the business trade or personal situation. Second, the productivity of life and work have been increased. Because the mobile phone services, such as voice calling, text messaging, online banking provided by bank institution and online ticketing may help them to have less opportunity costs for doing non value added activities in both of personal and business transactions, for instance, transport time and waiting time cost. By reducing these costs, they will have more time to focus on the important activities and able to produce effective work outcomes which directly influencing on the Thailand economic system. However, The use of mobile phones and services also have been affected on Thai society in negative ways. Mobile phones and services may diminish an awareness. Metropolitan Police deputy chief Pol Maj-General Worasak Noppasitthipor (2012) claimed that the risky behaviour, using mobile phones while driving leads to the accidental injury. Consequently, the government has legislated the law on mobile phone usage. Moreover, the psychological and health problems; for example, the lack of cognizance to use them in the benefitial ways and the eye-sight problems by staring at the screens for a long duration, are the critical issues that have been observed in Thai teenagers because of the mobile phone addictions. In conclusion, mobile phones and services cannot be separated that have to be modified together. Even Thai people obtain the benefits of them at the present, the drawbacks are still concerned. In order to avoid the problems, adolescents and the people should be made aware of the negative aspects. And, the users should have realize to use them in sensible ways.

References
Matt, W. (2010) Mobile phones: a brief history. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7906638/Mobile-phones-a-brief-history.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012).

MICT(2011) Annual report for the year ended 31 December 2011. Newbury: MICT. Available at: http://www.mict.go.th/download/article/article_20120605144054.pdf
(Accessed: 29 July 2012).

Suparat, I. and Jitarpa, S. (2012) “Thai police crackdown on use of phones, TV by drivers” The nation, 11 May [online]. Available at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Police-crackdown-on-use-of-phones-TV-by-drivers-30181738.html (Accessed: 28 July 2012).

References: Matt, W. (2010) Mobile phones: a brief history. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7906638/Mobile-phones-a-brief-history.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012). MICT(2011) Annual report for the year ended 31 December 2011. Newbury: MICT. Available at: http://www.mict.go.th/download/article/article_20120605144054.pdf (Accessed: 29 July 2012). Suparat, I. and Jitarpa, S. (2012) “Thai police crackdown on use of phones, TV by drivers” The nation, 11 May [online]. Available at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Police-crackdown-on-use-of-phones-TV-by-drivers-30181738.html (Accessed: 28 July 2012).