It can be a hand-held telephone, a laptop computer equipped with a mobile broadband adapter, or any other device.

Customers buy the digital, hand-held telephones separately; they range in price from $150 to $250, according to AT&T executives.

No wonder the hand-held portable telephone is becoming increasingly popular.

NEC will build about 30 stations from mid-1990 to early 1991, and supply a total of about 10,000 hand-held, portable and car telephones, he said.

"Telephones that allowed the hands to be free did not appear to be safer than hand-held telephones," it found.

In 1973, Motorola demonstrated the first hand-held portable telephone.

Even supporters of the ban acknowledge that there is scant empirical evidence linking hand-held telephones to accidents.

And it savages the ubiquitous hand-held telephones of the title.

The hand-held telephones would communicate directly with satellites in low-earth orbit, several hundred miles high.

Laws against using hand-held telephones while driving exist in several countries, including Brazil and Switzerland.