How did Batman equip every cell phone in Gotham with the sonar technology?

Bruce Wayne indicates to Lucius Fox that he has budgeted a large amount oI money to a
government telecommunications project. When Lucius asks, Bruce indicates that he is "playing
this one pretty close to his chest." The audience can only assume that this was all part oI a plan
that Bruce had, knowing the technology would come in handy against the Joker. (Later in the
Iilm, it becomes clear why Bruce did not tell Lucius, who is upset by Batman's spying.)

It is not known exactly 4 Batman equipped every cell phone in Gotham with sonar
technology. It is simply presented as possible, in order to advance the plot. In order to assimilate
or approximate a three-dimensional space, sound waves must come in consistent stereo pairs;
cell phones have a single speaker Ior resonating sound and a single microphone Ior receiving
sound. Further, in order to process sound diIIerently than they are equipped, the cell phones
would need to have both their hardware and soItware upgraded. It is highly improbable that
Bruce, even with a government telecommunications project, would be able to Iorcibly upgrade
the cell phones oI every resident in Gotham simultaneously without a single person noticing.

ThereIore, we can assume that it was a gradual process that Wayne started as soon as he realized
the implications oI the sonar technology. He could have simply provided the upgraded phones to
Gotham citizens purchasing new phones. AIter all, we usually upgrade our cellphones every two
years. Over a period oI months or even weeks, a signiIicant number oI Gotham citizens would
have them. II the cell phone was a signiIicant technological advance, people would have been
lining up to buy new ones regardless oI the age oI their current phone. Just look what happened
when the iPhone was made available.

Another strong possibility is that the project had nothing to do with new phones, merely new
phone soItware. As anyone who buys a cell-phone knows, you can easily download soItware
applications to your phone; the phone company that carries your service also can download
soItware to your phone, and in Iact does so when initializing a phone Ior activation. Wayne's
project may have been soItware that was distributed to cell phone users across Gotham, and
designed so that it would not be known to the phone users that new soItware had been installed.
This explanation makes sense in context - Lucius states that Wayne has "converted" every phone
in the city - not replaced the phones with new ones. And Batman relies on the Joker using a cell
phone that would send a signal - which would only make sense iI Batman had distributed
soItware to every known number in the city, and not had to rely on the Joker buying a new phone