A mobile phone with radio is a smartphone that can also tune into FM radio signals. While it might seem strange to link the telephone and the radio together, both technologies have a long history. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, and wireless communication can be traced back to the invention of radio (by Nikolai Tesla).

To make a call on your mobile phone, it needs to communicate with the cell towers that form your operator’s network. When your phone’registers’ with the network, it transmits its identification number (SID) over a control channel that uses special frequencies. When the base station antennas in your network receive the SID, they match it against their database to determine which cell you are currently roaming in.

Beyond Calls and Texts: Exploring Smartphones with FM Radio Capabilities

This information is then used to connect your phone to the right radio frequencies for your network. In GSM (what most phones use) the ‘1’s and ‘0’s that represent the data are modulated on a square wave, and the frequency of that wave is determined by how much amplitude is used. Using the SID and the signal strength of your mobile’s antenna, it is then able to connect to the right frequencies.

But not all smartphones have an FM chip built into them, and even if they do, carriers often refuse to activate it. This is speculated to be because access to free music and news might interfere with the phone companies’ collection of rent for cellular data. But this approach misses the point that infrastructure ‘never stands apart from the people who design and maintain it’ (Star and Bowker, 2006: 152), and that looking at where Ghana’s radio tuning on mobile phones sits situates this technology within a vibrant local production ecology.