HISTORY OF MOBILE (CELL PHONE)

The beginning history of cell phones is based upon radio technology that was developed from the 1940's onward. For instance the beginning of cell phones can be traced to the innovation in taxi cabs, police cars and other service vehicles where two way radios were used to communicate with one another or with a central base. Early cell phone communication technology could be even traced back to individuals with special radios that can patch into a phone line via live operator to make a phone call.

The first official mobile phone was used in Sweden by the Swedish police in 1946. The technology was connected to the telephone network and was distinctive of two way radio technology. The phone was not very practical; it was only able to make 6 phone calls before the car's battery was drained.

The technology of modern cell phones started with the creation of hexagonal cells for mobile phones by D.H. Ring from Bell Labs in 1947, later on another engineer from Bell Labs conceived of cell towers that would transmit and receive signals in three directions instead of normal bi directional antennas. However, although some technologies have been developed, electronics and other technologies would take decades to mature and to be developed. For instance, the electronics that were used in the first cell phones were first developed in the 1960's

By 1967, mobile phone technology was available; however, the user had to stay within one cell area. Cell areas which were serviced by a base station were unable to hand off cellular phone calls from one base station to another. While you could make a phone, call, you weren't able to continue the call after you reached a set range. In 1970, Amos Edward Joel, who also was an engineer at Bell Labs, developed the call handoff system. This technology facilitated continuity of a phone call from one area to another without dropping the phone call.

While the technology had been developed, it wasn't until 1971 that AT&T submitted a request to the FCC for cellular service. It took more than 10 years for an approval and in 1982; the FCC allocated the frequencies of 824-894 MHZ Band to Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS). From 1982 to 1990, AMPS was an analog service, Digital AMPS came online as of 1990.

Throughout the decades, there have been many technologies that existed that made mobile phones available. Most of the time, these phones were installed in vehicles due to the large battery requirements. For instance, the MTA (Mobile Telephone System A) developed by Eriksson was available in Sweden in 1950's. Unfortunately, it weighed over 80 pounds, later versions however weighed around the 20 pound range, still making it ineffective for truly portable devices that are used today.