Do mobile/ cell phones give off radiation when its on standby?

Question

the phones transmit on standby?

Answer 1

mobile phones do not give off radiation

instead, it sends electromagnetic waves...

Answer 2

yes mobile phones do give off a tiny amount of radiation when its on stand by, typically this would be a few 10's of milli watts, ie very small. When you make a call it will use a little over 100 milli watts of power.

When the phone is on stand by, its actually talking to the mobile phone antennae to maintain a network connection.

Answer 3

Ok, let me say for a start "Christian A"'s answer is misleading.

Radio waves, aka electromagnetic waves ARE radiation.  They radiate.

When your phone is on standby, it DOES radiate.

If your phone can ring, it means it is connecting periodically with the cellular basestation. Otherwise the system does not know where the phone is & therefore where to contact it, when needed.

Yes, it could listen only, but that is not the way they do things.

On standby the phone likely checks in only occasionally, but, yes it check in & radiates to do it.

With many phones, if you put them near your computer active (amplified) speakers, you can hear it break into the audio when it transmits, so you can hear each time it checks.

The most publicised effect of cellphone radiation is heating. If the phone transmits less often than when talking, the radiation is less frequent & the heating therefore less.  So likely whatever effect that causes you to ask, is less on standby.

Answer 4

Yes.  That's electromagnetic radiation, not nuclear radiation though.

In order to receive a call, the cell tower needs to know if it can reach you or not, so your phone sends a message every so often to say "here I am".  Then, when someone phones you, the network knows which cell tower is closest, to signal you.

This happens when the phone is "hung up", but powered on.  If you can see a signal strength indicator, it's transmitting periodically.

That's why your cell phone manual says to "turn off" (not just hang up) when refuelling a car, takeoff & landing by plane, or passing through an area where construction workers are using explosives to blast rock, or entering a hospital.