Using the phone book built into mobile phones

The marvellous phonebook

The phonebook built into a mobile is probably its most useful feature, and astonishingly some people never use it.

Because you are likely to be out and about when you use a mobile, and may not have ready access to a list of phone numbers, the names and numbers stored in the phone (or the sim card) are very useful.

In addition, most phones look up the number of an incoming call, and if they find a matching name, display this name on the screen to let you know who is calling.

Types of phonebook memory

There are two memories in most mobile phones: the memory in the sim card, and also memory space in the phone itself.

Sim memory

Normally, you store names and numbers in the sim card in your phone. This has the advantage that you can put the card into another phone handset and take your address book with you. The drawback is that there is a limitation on the length of names, and on the characters you can store on some sim cards. As time goes by, new versions of sim cards tend to have higher and higher capacities.

Phone memory

Most mobile phones can store names and numbers in addition to the storage space in the sim card. Generally, the phone can store longer names, and may be able to store some characters in the number (such as chain dialling characters) that the sim won't take.

A major advantage of a phone memory is that it allows you to copy the phonebook of one sim card to another sim card, by copying them to the phone from the old sim, switching sim, and copying them to the new sim. Some budget models of phones do not have any phone memory space, however. If this matters to you, ask when buying.

Using the memory

Precisely how to store and recall names and numbers to and from memory varies from handset model to model, so you should refer to the user guide for your handset for details.

If you know the memory location number of the number you want to call, you can simply dial that number by entering the memory location, followed by # then [send]. For example, to dial the number stored in memory location 45, press 45#[send]

Some handsets only let you access numbers stored on the memory currently in use. For example, if you have the sim memory in use, you can't reach numbers stored in the phone memory in this way. To switch from one memory to another, use the phone's menu system.

Other handsets give sim memory location numbers in a different sequence: for example some Motorola handsets would refer to location 45 in the sim card as "145" so you'd enter 145#[send] to use it.

Some models of handset don't let you choose (or even know) the location numbers where records are stored. The solution to this is to use the alphabetical search facilities built in. This varies from handset to handset, so you'll need to refer to the handset's user manual for details.

Phonebook software

There is specialist software available for most models of handset, which allows you to manage the phonebook entries in your mobile phone and/or sim card. For example, the Nokia Cellular Data Suite and the Motorola SoftCellect suite provides these functions.

You can also buy a special sim card reader and software that allows you to manipulate phonebook entries from a PC, with the sim card in a special holder, regardless of the handset type used. This is particularly useful for making copies of phonebooks for groups of phones.

Good idea

Whenever you are calling someone, think about whether you are likely to call them again. If you are, save time and effort by putting their name and number into memory first: that way, you'll not have to enter it again. Similarly, if someone calls you, think about storing their number into the phone's memory.

Caller display

When an incoming call arrives, the phone number of the caller is normally sent before the ringing starts. Your handset will check the last six digits of the caller's number, and if they match one stored in memory, will display the caller's name from the phonebook entry. If there are two entries with the same last 6 digits, only the incoming number is shown.

"Withheld" numbers (where the caller has chosen not to release their number) may be announced as "Anonymous", "Private Number Calling", "Withheld" or sometimes just "Call".

Where the number is not available (the call has come through a system that doesn't pass CLI or is from an international destination) the phone will probably show "Unavailable" or just "Call".

the mobile phone user guide

Technical : Using it: Phonebook