Cell Phones Have Come Along Way!

If you are of a certain age, you remember the world before cell phones.  You remember the telephone which is now referred to as a land line and slowly disappearing into history as more and more people eliminate them in favor of cell phones.  Many grandparents will tell you about party lines where everyone had their own ring and your neighbors ended up listening in when they picked up the receiver to make a call.

When we think of cell phones, we think of  those that have been around for about 40 years but I discovered the idea has been around for a lot longer.  In 1908, a man claimed to have invented a wireless telephone but the world thought him so crazy, they arrested him for fraud.  Charges were later dropped.

During World War I, the Germans tested a radio based cell phone on the train that ran between Berlin and Zossen. After the war in 1924, the Germans added the radio based cell phone to the Berlin Hamburg run.  Not much happened until World War II when the military made use of radio telephony links through the war because the devices became more portable with hand held receivers.

These inventions lead the researchers at Bell Laboratories to develop a phone system that allowed people to send and receive calls in their cars.  On June 17, 1946, they offered mobile services for car phones in St Louis, MO and within a couple of months AT&T began offering their own version of the same service. There was no nationwide service, only a patchwork of limited areas with limited service.

Unfortunately, these phones never really developed at this point because they appealed to a limited number of people.  The cost of the calls tended to be quite expensive because the early calls had to be connected by an operator and the equipment installed in your car weighed close to 36 kilograms or about 75 pounds.  In addition the phones operated by the person depressing a button when they wanted to speak and release it to listen.  At this point, there were only three channels available so only three customers could be using their mobile car phones at any one time.

This system was soon replaced by a better one that allowed more callers on the air and eliminated the need to use the operator to connect calls.  Unfortunately, the increased number of channels still could not handle the demand so people often waited up to 30 minutes or more to connect.  Many local governments restricted the number of callers to keep the system working.

Companies came up with the Radio Common Carrier but it was only a bit better but it discouraged roaming and it had a complicated billing service.  About the same time, various mobile services began in Europe.

 The next big development towards the modern cell phone came from Russia in the late 50's, early 60's when a scientist developed a lighter weight phone weighing 70 grams and fit in a persons hand but the Russian Government pushed to have it used in cars.  Around the same time, Bell labs designed the first technology that lead to our current cell systems.  This technology allowed calls to reuse frequencies and hand off calls.

The first modern cell phone was used to make the first call in 1973 when scientists at Motorola used a prototype to call Bell Labs.  This phone weighed about three pounds and was about 6 inches long.  in 1979, the first 1G network was developed in Tokyo where it spread out across the world, arriving in the United States in 1983, just about the same time the first modern cell phone was released.

The first Motorola phone cost almost $4000 dollars and lasted for about 30 minutes before it needed recharging.  Unfortunately, it was about 12 inches long but it was hailed as the most portable phone up to that time.  Over time, 1G became 2G and the phones became smaller until IBM released Simon, the worlds first smartphone with apps, calendar, e-mail, standard keyboard, etc in 1993. It cost all of $900 for a two year contract or $1100 with no contract.

Over time, the phones have evolved into today's "smart phone" with everything we'd find on any other mobile device.  They are much smaller and much more powerful.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.