Mobile Telephone History
...dormant technology, became the dynamic and perhaps most important communication tool of our lives. Commercial mobile telephony began in 1946. The cellular radio concept was published in 1947. But only since 1995 have mobiles become low cost, rich in features, and used world wide. We first examine mobile telephony’s early and bulky beginnings. Next, the long journey to analog cellular. Finally, full digital working, exemplified by GSM and now CDMA, providing services and features that make the mobile indispensable and ubiquitous. We’ll see how early mobile telephony battled the same problems of today: government regulation, scarce spectrum, and hardware limitations. How Scandinavian, Japanese, and United States groups independently crafted their own radio-telephone solutions. At 58, the relatively recent, spectacular success of today’s mobile telephone could hardly be guessed by its age. But its history reveals why this technology took so long to mature. And the present shows us that it was worth the wait.
Introduction
Public mobile telephone history begins in the 1940s after World War II. Although primitive mobile telephones existed before the War, these were specially converted two way radios used by government or industry, with calls patched manually into the landline telephone network. Many New York City fireboats and tugboats had such radiotelephones in the 1930s. These were private services. For this article, though, a mobile telephone is a wireless device which connects to the public switched telephone network and is offered to the general public by a common carrier or public utility. Further, for the most part, mobile history is not just a study of the telephone, the handset itself, but a look at the wireless system it is connected to.
After World War II badly neglected civilian communication needs could finally be addressed. Many cities...
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