12/05/2023

History of mobile phones

Interesting reading on mobile phone invention

We all spend many hours every day on our smartphones, but do you know who invented the phone and when was the phone invented?  If not, read this article completely. In this article, we have included details about invention of the world’s first phone.

The mobile phone was invented by Martin Cooper, who joined Motorola in the year 1970. Martin was an American who had a great interest in the telecom industry. Martin Cooper was working on wireless technology.  He wanted to use this technology to make a telephone-like device with no cable. Ever since the invention of the telephone, efforts were being made to make it even more modern and portable.  Many companies and scholars were working in this field but it was Martin Cooper, the engineer of Motorola, who got success in the field. Martin invented the world’s first phone weighing 1.1 kg and after charging once, this phone could be used for 30 minutes.  It used to take 10 hours to charge this phone. The price of this first phone of the world was 2700 US dollars i.e. that is around 2 lakh rupees.

When was the world’s first phone invented? As we all know, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.  Guglielmo Marconi introduced wireless technology with principles in the 1890s.  After this, many scholars started working in both fields. There were some of them who wanted to combine these two technologies and make a device that allows two or more people to talk to each other without any cable.  Martin Cooper, who was interested in wireless technology, joined the Motorola company as an engineer in 1970, and in 1973 he invented the first mobile phone.  It is also a noteworthy and interesting thing that the world’s first phone was from Motorola. The first mobile in the whole world was named Motorola DynaTAC which was 9 inches long and weighed around 2.5 pounds i.e. 1.1 kg.  After the invention of Martin Cooper, the mobile call industry and the telecom industry started. After this invention by Martin Cooper, a lot of companies started working on this technology and to make a better version of the mobile phone. Work was also done to improve the cellular network in the country.  Nearly 10 years later, in 1983, Motorola launched a phone in the market for general public called Motorola DynaTAC 8000X.


History of mobile phones and the first mobile phone
Early mobile phones are often referred to as 0G mobile phones, or Zero Generation mobile phones

Although most of us feel like we couldn't live without our mobile phones, they've not really been in existence for very long. In fact, mobile phones as we know them today have only been around in the last 20 years.

When were mobile phones invented? Mobile phones, particularly the smartphones that have become our inseparable companions today, are relatively new. However, the history of mobile phones goes back to 1908 when a US Patent was issued in Kentucky for a wireless telephone. Mobile phones were invented as early as the 1940s when engineers working at AT&T developed cells for mobile phone base stations. The very first mobile phones were not really mobile phones at all. They were two-way radios that allowed people like taxi drivers and the emergency services to communicate.

Instead of relying on base stations with separate cells (and the signal being passed from one cell to another), the first mobile phone networks involved one very powerful base station covering a much wider area. Motorola, on 3 April 1973 were first company to mass produce the the first handheld mobile phone. These early mobile phones are often referred to as 0G mobile phones, or Zero Generation mobile phones. Most phones today rely on 3G or 4G mobile technology. Mobile telephony has a long history that started off with experiments of communications from and to moving vehicle rather then handheld devices. In later years, the main challenges have laid in the development of interoperable standard and coping with the explosive success and ever increasing demand for bandwidth and reliability. By tracking how mobile phone statistics have changed over time, we are able to see how these devices have evolved to the smartphones we use today.


The history of the mobile phone & the future of mobile technology
The DynaTEC 8000X was the world’s first handheld mobile phone. It came on the market in 1983 and weighed 1.1 kilos, was 23 cm long, and then it was definitely not flat with a depth of 13 cm. The battery only lasted for one hour of mobile phone talk time and then it cost USD 10,000 in today’s money … A lot has happened since and everything has become smaller

The history of the mobile phone goes back 120 years, but the story has only just begun. We know the most important historical events but have absolutely no idea what the future holds. The only thing we can conclude today (at the end of 2018) is that the history of the mobile phone is incomparable to the history of any other commercial product in world history and that mobile technology will have a significant influence when writing the future history of the development of mobile telephony and human behaviour.

The mobile is the only commercial product in world history that has gained so much media coverage, influence, generated such significant investments in development, operation and marketing, and at the same time created such high share values. The mobile phone has only been surpassed by wheat in terms of a product’s influence on social and human behaviour. This presentation of the history and development of the mobile phone is primarily written in a European context. This is because we have mainly collected our data and knowledge from Europe and especially Denmark, and secondly because it is in the European telecommunications market that we have been conducting news distribution and price comparisons of mobile phones, mobile plans and broadband since 1999 on Mobil.nu and TelePrisTjek.dk. For 20 years, myself and my colleagues have provided consumers with useful information and knowledge about the qualities of mobile phones and the actual prices of mobile plans, broadband and telephones.

Our many years of experience with independent testing and reviews of mobile phones and price comparisons of phones, mobile plans and mobile broadband are the very foundation of the idea and purpose of SmartphonesRevealed.com. Providing consumers with impartial and fair guides on how to find the cheapest mobile plan, the best prices for phones and the best deals on mobile broadband is central to our work. In our review of the history and development of the mobile phone, we delve into the most significant historical events and spice them up with our own analyses and points of view. This is because we find it important with historical facts to add to professionally relevant considerations by Stein Jürgen, mobile expert since 1999 and myself, Nicolas Fredriksen, who both over the years have dealt with mobile phones, mobile plans, mobile broadband and solutions in consumer-oriented mobile technology. We believe our considerations of the future of smartphones and the impact of mobile technology on society and human social behaviour, are relevant input when communicating the history of mobile phones.


The First Cell Phone To Present Time

Cell phones were originally created so people could take while they drove. Initially called “car phones”, early cell phones were bulky, cumbersome, and expensive compared to today’s modern devices.

Today, we’re covering the history of cell phones and explaining where the future of cell phones could be. The world’s first cell phone was launched in 1983. It was the Motorola DynaTAC 800x. It was priced at around $4,000 and lasted for 30 minutes of talk time before dying. It was also about the size of a foot long sub from Subway. Despite the phone’s large size, it was still considered to be the most portable telephone ever made. For the first time in history, a human being could call someone without the constraints of wires or portable phone holders.

Prior to the release of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, several major developments had paved the way for the first cell phone. In 1908, for example, one man claimed to have invented a wireless telephone. That man was considered so crazy for his time that he was accused of fraud. The charges were later dropped.


Do you know when first mobile phone call was made?
First commercial call using a mobile phone was made on April 3, 1973, by a Motorola researcher Martin Cooper from New York to Bell Labs New Jersey

One thing as common as the Internet connection is a mobile phone. Everybody needs it and everybody has it. In the present age, it’s more of a necessity than something only the cool kids have. Unlike an iPhone, which has an elitist appeal, most mid-range phones today cater to all our basic necessities. They might not be as faster or as flashier as the top-end phones in the market, nonetheless, they are good.

At a time when simple voice calls (remember those giant monochrome mobile phones?) are being replaced by video calls and Facetime, we cannot help but wonder– where did it all start? When was first call using a mobile phone made and what did they talk about? The history of mobile phones dates back to 1908 when Kentucky-based inventor Natha B. Stubblefield patented the first ever ‘wireless telephone called the ‘Cave Phone’. The phone used radio signals instead of the wired networks to communicate. However, it wasn’t until 1947 that the engineers at AT&T’s Bell Labs developed the design of a cellular network, as we know them today.

The first commercial call was made nearly 44 years ago on April 3, 1973, by a Motorola executive and researcher Martin Cooper near a 900 MHz base-station on the 6th Avenue between the 53rd and the 54th street in New York to the headquarters of Bell Labs that was located in New Jersey.


THE INVENTION OF MOBILE PHONES

In the 1970s, television audiences all over the world were familiar with the notion of a hand-held two-way communication device, as seen in the hands of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock in the Star Trek series that began in the late 1960s. The reality was far from this ideal.

Two-way radiophones had been helping police and military personnel to stay in contact in fast-changing situations since before the Second World War. But these small, private networks required bulky equipment and were inaccessible to the public. In the 1970s, television audiences all over the world were familiar with the notion of a hand-held two-way communication device, as seen in the hands of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock in the Star Trek series that began in the late 1960s.

Martin Cooper, the engineer from Motorola, developed the first hand-held phone that could connect over Bell’s AMPS. Motorola launched the DynaTAC in 1984. It weighed over a kilogram and was affectionately known as The Brick, but it quickly became a must-have accessory for wealthy financiers and entrepreneurs.

Evolution of the Mobile Phone

From simple to smart, mobile phones have transformed dramatically to become information and communication hubs fundamental to modern life. But how did they get to be this advanced? Scroll through the timeline to see how and when phone technology evolved.

The First Ever Portable Mobile Phone - In 1983 the world got the first ever portable mobile phone in the shape of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. It cost an eye-watering $4000 USD and was a huge status symbol at the time. Two years later the first mobile phone call on UK soil was made, the then Vodafone Chairman Sir Ernest Harrison, the lucky recipient. In 1989 Motorola followed up the DynaTAC with the 9800X or MicroTAC, it came with a fold down keyboard cover and set the standard for the flip phone form factor seen throughout the 90's.

GSM first launched in Europe 1991 with the Orbitel TPU 900 first to market, but it wasn't until 1992 that mobiles were no longer restricted to business use. Mass production paved the way for cost-effective consumer handsets with digital displays. Nokia was one of the first to take advantage of this transition, with the Nokia 1011 arriving that year. Although it only offered four colours, the Siemens S10 brought mobile phone displays to life for the first time in 1997. The same year Hagenuk launched the GlobalHandy, the first device without an external aerial. Customisation also kicked off in a big way with Ericcson offering swappable coloured front keyboard panels. The following year Nokia launched a range of ‘Xpress-on’ interchangeable covers on the 5100 series, making it the first fashion orientated phone.


Meet Marty Cooper - the inventor of the mobile phone
Martin Cooper, inventor of the mobile phone, said manufacturers are cramming too much into new handsets

Martin Cooper may not be a household name, but his invention is familiar to more than half the planet's population who own a mobile phone. The concept of a handheld phone was his brainchild, and with the help of his Motorola team, the first handset was born in 1973 weighing in at two kilos. When he stood on a New York street and made the first phone call from a prototype cellular phone, he could not have conceived how successful it would become.

Now a worldwide telecoms industry has sprung up along with a vast array of technologies developed for mobile phones. $10,000 phone - He told Click that producing the first phone cost Motorola the equivalent of $1m (£650,000) in today's money. "We had to virtually shut down all engineering at our company and have everybody working on the phone and the infrastructure to make the thing work," he said. "Even by 1983, a portable handheld cellular telephone cost $4,000 (£2,600), which would be the equivalent of more than $10,000 (£6,500) today."

Mr Cooper said his team faced the challenge of squeezing thousands of parts into a phone for the first time. "The industrial designers did a superb job, but by the time the engineers got done we ended up with two and a half pounds. "A very substantial part of that first phone was in fact battery which weighed four or five times more than an entire cellphone now," he said. "The battery lifetime was 20 minutes, but that wasn't really a big problem because you couldn't hold that phone up for that long."


History of mobile phones
A man talks on his mobile phone while standing near a conventional telephone box, which stands empty

The history of mobile phones covers mobile communication devices that connect wirelessly to the public switched telephone network.

While the transmission of speech by signal has a long history, the first devices that were wireless, mobile, and also capable of connecting to the standard telephone network are much more recent. The first such devices were barely portable compared to today's compact hand-held devices, and their use was clumsy.

Drastic changes have taken place in both the networking of wireless communication and the prevalence of its use, with smartphones becoming common globally and a growing proportion of Internet access now done via mobile broadband.


Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of the telephone
Born Alexander Bell 3rd March 1847 Died: 2nd August 1922 (aged 75)

Alexander Graham Bell (/ˈɡreɪ.əm/, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.

Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf; profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Bell also had a strong influence on the National Geographic Society and its magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903. Beyond his work in engineering, Bell had a deep interest in the emerging science of heredity.


1963 article predicted cell phones

A social media post going around claims to show a 1963 newspaper article accurately predicting people would be able to carry a phone in their pocket in the future.

It even features a picture of a woman holding something that resembles a modern flip-phone. It’s real. The article was published on April 18th, 1963 in the Mansfield, Ohio News Journal.

But predictions about cell phones got back much further than that. In 1926, Nicola Tesla predicted people would one day be able to communicate instantly with one another with devices that fit inside a vest pocket.


Public payphone in the 60s
Don’t hang up yet: Public payphone remains a cherished service for some residents

Nestled in a corner of a Bukit Purmei provision shop is a relic – an iconic orange payphone belonging to the 78-year-old shop owner, who wants to be known as Charlie.

The coin-operated payphone used to serve Charlie’s customers well. For 10 cents, they could make a two-minute call. This service also made some extra cash for Charlie.

But when mobile phones became more commonplace in the 2000s, Charlie decided to pull the plug on this service – but not because there was no demand for his payphone.