It looks like a mobile phone, but the service is much cheaper. It acts like a mobile phone, but only in your own city. Beyond the city walls, it’s useless. “Little Smart”, also called “xiaolingtong”, has always been compared to mobile phones. But actually, it is more like one of those cordless phones(无绳电话) used around the home. The only difference is that this one reaches much further than from the bathroom to the living room. It can travel across an entire city. Cheap costs are the main reason for the success of Little Smart. It costs 25 yuan a month for the line and about 0.1 yuan per minute to use. A mobile phone, on the other hand, can cost four or five times as much. What’s more, unlike mobile phones, there’s no fee(费) for incoming calls. So these low charges have attracted many users. But, Little Smart is not really that smart. Users often complain about its bad voice quality. And there are not as many stations to pick up its signals as there are for mobiles. “I couldn’t receive a phone call if I was on a bus,” said Li Ping, a user in Hangzhou. “It worked fine when I stood still, but there were breaks in signal when I was moving.” Scientists are trying to make Little Smart more user-friendly. Messaging and Internet access(接入) have been added to the service. And the latest Little Smart handset even has color screen. 小题1:Why is Little Smart popular in China?
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