The cell phone is becoming the universal wireless device (UWD). It offers an amazing number of features now—voice, texting, Internet access, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a camera, GPS, MP3 audio, and FM radio. But the possibilities are even greater. There are so many more features it could provide to help it achieve that “universal” status. What’s it missing? Here are some suggestions.

AM radio: If you can do FM, you can do AM. There’s lots of great content like talk radio, news, weather, traffic, and music on local stations. Silicon Labs makes an AM/FM radio chip, so it’s very possible. AM in the 535- to 1710-kHz range is easy. The big problem is the antenna—or antennas. Of course, each radio in the handset will require an antenna. These antennas will interfere with each other, so their physical placement is critical. Also, lower-frequency radios like AM, CB, ham, and TV need to be long to work well, further exacerbating the crowding problem.

HD Radio: Even though it occupies the same spectrum as AM and FM radio, HD Radio uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to create digital versions of standard broadcasts, plus some extra channels. If you can do AM and FM, you can do HD Radio.

CB radio: There are some folks who still use CB on the road. Wouldn’t it be great to have that function built in? With a 27-MHz operating frequency, again, the antenna is the problem.

Family Radio Service: Like walkie-talkies, Family Radio Service (FRS) is a popular two-way radio service in the 460-MHz range. It works great and has many applications that have replaced CB. Lots of people use these radios when they’re outdoors or even in malls.

Shortwave radio: How about a radio for general shortwave (SW) listening in the 3- to 30-MHz bands? Lots of hobbyists listen to SW. We will need a tuning knob or up/down button, though, as well as a solution to the antenna problem. (Is someone working on better antennas?)

Ham radio: A special version of cell phones could incorporate ham radio in selected VHF and UHF bands, but I won’t begin to advocate CW operation in the HF bands. Where would the telegraph key go?

Satellite radio: How about Sirius XM radio on a cell phone? Users could enjoy hundreds of channels of music, news, and talk. These radios operate in the 2.3-GHz range, so it is certainly a possibility. Don’t forget the monthly subscription fee.

Satellite phone: These phones work directly with a satellite instead of a local cell site. They need a bit more power and receiver sensitivity, but they let you talk from anywhere the satellite sees, like worldwide. If you’re in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on your sailboat, you won’t have any regular cell service. But with your sat phone, you can call anywhere. Elecktrobit just announced a reference design for a standard cell phone plus sat phone that’s no bigger than the usual smart phone. It’s a sure way to keep in touch.

Television: Yes, I know, you can get TV now over some cellular networks. The content isn’t that great, but it’s there if you want it. I’m talking about broadcast TV. You can get MediaFLO broadcasts in some parts of the U.S., but the coverage is very limited. Wouldn’t it be great to get regular U.S. broadcast TV, which will be all digital as of June 12, on your phone? It will soon happen as the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) wraps up its M/H (mobile handset) standard for cell-phone TV. You’ll soon find local TV coverage on the small screen, though it represents another antenna problem to solve.

Smart-card functionality: It wouldn’t be hard to use your phone like an electronic credit card. We’ll soon see these applications in the form of near-field communications (NFC) inside the cell phone. This short-range wireless (10 cm or less) technology relies on 13.56-MHz radios.

Home monitoring: How would you like to call your home while you’re on vacation and make sure everything’s okay? You would dial your home number, and the phone would automatically bring up a menu. You would then select sensor info from one or more video cams and see what’s going on. The technology is already here. All we need is the service at a price we could afford.

Picture phone: It’s time for the picture phone. We can already take and send digital still photos and short videos over the air. Why not pictures of the caller? Of course, it’s doable now. But companies haven’t figured out who would want it. Maybe teens?

There are lots of other possibilities if we want the true UWD. For example, some of you may want to include a garage door opener, remote keyless entry for your vehicle, or an all-purpose RF remote control for your TV, DVD player, or stereo. You could also get WiMAX for some broadband access.

I just can’t figure out how to use Ultra-Wideband (UWB) in a cell phone. Any thoughts? In any case, I bet we will eventually see some of these features in future phones. We won’t see all of them at once, but we will see several together. Still, just think of the interference possibilities, test conditions, and coexistence issues to be solved.

And that’s not even counting the non-wireless functions that may be useful, like dictation, electric shavers, high-brightness LED flashlights, and tasers—yes, tasers. I suspect I’ve only scratched the surface. Carriers are always looking for new applications and new sources of revenue.

Also, while I’ve focused on the hardware options, the software functions are virtually unlimited. New app stores are springing up all over. Now, we need the software-defined radio (SDR) community to rise to the occasion and enable all of these features to be implemented in software as much and as soon as possible—as well as a solution to the antenna problems and a power source that can still fit in a cell phone while providing the capacity of an Interstate car battery. That isn’t too tall an order, is it?