Mobile phone
| Mobile phone | |
| Designer | various |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | various |
| CPU | various |
| Graphics | various |
| Memory | various |
| Media | various |
| Released | 1946-present |
| Added to Museum | December 25, 2001 |
A mobile phone, also known as cellular phone, cell phone, or hand phone, is a portable telephone that receives calls over a radio frequency.
Pre-cellular mobile radio telephone services
Mobile radio telephone services preceded cellular telephones. As mobile technology is categorized into generations, these services are commonly referred to as the zero generation or 0G.
The Mobile Telephone Service by Bell Systems, led by AT&T, launched in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, on June 17, 1946. The telephone audio was carried over VHF signals. Communications equipment by Motorola carried the VHF signals, however, there was a limited amount of frequencies available which caused the service to quickly reach its capacity limit.
The Improved Mobile Telephone Service, also by Bell Systems, replaced MTS and improved upon it by using direct dial connections rather than using a live operator and by allowing both sides of the conversation to communicate simultaneously. Launched in 1964, it was operated in the United States and Canada.
The Portable Executive Phone was released at the Consumer Electronics Show in New York City on June 23, 1968. It cost $2000 USD and required an FCC license to operate.
First Generation cellular services
In December 1947, two engineers at Bell Labs named Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young, proposed using antennas in hexagonal cells for mobile phones in automobiles. However, the technology needed to realize the idea did not exist at the time.
It wasn't until 1965 when the Bell Labs engineers, Richard H. Frenkiel, Joel S. Engel, and Philip T. Porter, expanded the proposal into a workable design. Porter suggested using directional antennas to reduce interference as well as the system to dial without connecting to the network until the call is sent to reduce channel usage.
The first commercial cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in the Tokyo metropolitan area in 1979. The first phone used by this service was the Panasonic TZ-801.
