Mobile Phones - History from 1973

The history of cell / mobile phones charts the development of devices which connect wirelessly to the public switched telephone network. The transmission of speech by radio has a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links. Hand-held radio transceivers have been available since the 1940s. Mobile telephones for automobiles became available from some telephone companies in the 1940s. Early devices were bulky and consumed high power and the network supported only a few simultaneous conversations. Modern cellular networks allow automatic and pervasive use of mobile phones for voice and data communications.
In the United States, engineers from Bell Labs began work on a system to allow mobile users to place and receive telephone calls from automobiles, leading to the inauguration of mobile service on June 17, 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. Shortly after, AT&T offered Mobile Telephone Service. A wide range of mostly incompatible mobile telephone services offered limited coverage area and only a few available channels in urban areas. The introduction of cellular technology, which allowed re-use of frequencies many times in small adjacent areas covered by relatively low powered transmitters, made widespread adoption of mobile telephones economically feasible.
In the USSR, Leonid Kupriyanovich, engineer from Moscow, in 1957-1961 developed and presented a number of experimental models of handheld mobile phone. The weight of a latest model, presented in 1961, was only 70 g and it freely took place on a palm. However in the USSR the decision at first to develop the system of automobile "Altai" phone was made.
The advances in mobile telephony can be traced in successive generations from the early "0G" services like MTS and its successor Improved Mobile Telephone Service, to first generation (1G) analog cellular network, second generation (2G) digital cellular networks, third generation (3G) broadband data services to the current state of the art, fourth generation (4G) native-IP networks.
Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On April 3, 1973 Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment in front of reporters, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Martin Cooper weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge.
John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products and Martin Cooper's boss in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone.
Below are some images represents the history of Cell / Mobile Phones from 1973 – 2013:
1973
The first public wireless phone call was made in 3rd April, 1973 by Martin Cooper of Motorola. Walking along in sixth avenue, New York he called Joel Engel (head of research, Bell Labs). The phone he used had the following features:
Weight: 2.5 pound
Length: 10 inches
Battery life: 20 minutes only.
1982:
Mobile phone opportunities opened up when the Federal Communications Commission approved the establishment of Mobile Telephone System and allocated analog frequencies use by the network.
1983: MOTOROLA Dynatac 8000X
The first Cellphone was sold to the public and really kicked things off. The MOTOROLA DYNATAC 8000X (nickname "The Brick") included the following features:
Twenty (20) large buttons
A long rubber antenna
Battery life: 30 minutes
Recharge time: 10 hours
1989: MTOROLA Microtac:
It was the first flip cell phone from Motorola. Over the years, we've seen the exponential increase in the cell phone's abilities, as its price continues to go down. Several attempts at fads didn't quite catch on. Yet, with each new device, the cell phone's evolution became faster and more sleek.
1993: IBM Personal Communicator:
This is the first Cell phone to have Smartphone capabilities.
1998: NOKIA 5110:
This handset was best remembered for the Game Snake and Colorful Snap-on covers. Talk time increased up to 3 hours.
2004: MOTOROLA RAZR V3:
Best remembered for ultra-thin design, talk time increases up to 7 hours.
2007: APPLE iPhone:
Best remembered for being a Game changer.
2013:
Lots of Smart-Phone from various manufacturers around the world, like Blackberry, Sony, LG, Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Symphony etc.