While the practice of transmitting speech as a signal has a long history, the first mobile, wireless devices that could also connect to the traditional telephone network were considerably more recent. In comparison to modern small hand-held gadgets, the first of them were hardly transportable, and their operation was awkward.
In 1956, Sweden introduced the world’s first completely automated mobile phone system for automobiles. The MTA (Mobiltelefonisystem A) system allows for rotary dial call placement and reception while driving. Another option was to page the car phone. Incoming calls required an operator to find the closest base station to the car, whereas calls placed directly from the car were direct dial.
The ARP network in Finland, which was introduced in 1971, was one of the first widely used public commercial mobile phone networks. Due to its small improvement over earlier private and patchy networks, ARP is frequently referred to as a zero generation (0G) cellular network.
Before 1973, mobile telephony was only possible with phones that were mounted in cars and other moving vehicles. The first manufacturer of a portable mobile phone was Motorola.
On April 3, 1973, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, a competitor, received a call from Motorola researcher and CEO Martin Cooper, who had invented the mobile phone. Dr. Cooper’s prototype handheld phone had dimensions of 23 by 13 by 4.5 centimetres and weighed 2 kilogrammes (4.4 lb).
The next generation of cellular mobile telephone standards is “5G,” which has emerged after five decades of development and the passing of 3G and 4G. The 5G standards incorporate millimeter-band radio spectrum to enable communication speeds of up to 1 GB/s and reduce latency (the processing time to handle a data transmission) between a handset and a network to a few milliseconds. Similar to current networks, 5G specifications also encompass low-band and mid-band spectrum. Beginning in 2019, phone providers will roll out 5G technology.
A very unique alternative to the currently popular cell phone is to connect straight from the handset to an Earth-orbiting satellite. These mobile phones can be used in rural locations where wired networks are unavailable or where building a cellular network would be unprofitable.
The oldest system is Inmarsat, which was created in 1979 to protect marine life and uses a number of satellites in geostationary orbits to cover most of the planet. With just one or two satellites, other smaller operators employ the same strategy to offer a regional service.
