The cellular system uses multiple base stations to cover a geographic area. As the mobile phone user travels from cell to cell, the call is automatically “handed off” to the next station.
Question: What does “handed off” mean in this sentence?
The equipment managing the call in one cell transfers the responsibility for managing the call to another cell. That is, one cell hands the call to another cell. It is very similar in meaning to “hand over”. When would I use “hand off” vs. “hand over”? That’s hard to say. In any case, the first cell has nothing to do with the call after handing it off the the second.