From The Beginning To Now
Handheld Cell Phone
1973- 1990
Prior to 1973, cellular mobile phone technology was
limited to phones installed in cars and other
vehicles.
On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first analog
mobile phone call using a heavy prototype model. He called Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
There was a long race between Motorola and Bell Labs to produce the first portable mobile phone.
Cooper is the first inventor named on "Radio telephone system" filed on October
17, 1973 with the US Patent Office and later issued as
US Patent 3,906,166. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable
communication products (and Cooper's boss) was also named on the patent. He
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.
Digital
Networks 1990’s - late
1990’s
In the 1990's, the 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the
GSM standard. These differed from the previous generation by
using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out-of-band phone-to-network signaling. The rise in mobile
phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw the advent of prepaid phones
In 1991 the first GSM network launched in Finland. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems
in Europe were higher than those in America, though
with some overlap. For example, the 900 MHz frequency range was used for
both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G
systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems. In
America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as
AMPS and displaced some of the existing
analog channels.
Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a
trend away from the larger "brick" phones toward tiny 100–200g hand-held
devices. This change was possible not only through technological improvements
such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also
because of the higher density of cell sites to accommodate increasing usage. The
latter meant that the average distance transmission from phone to the base
station shortened, leading to increased battery life whilst on the
move.
High Speed IP Data
Networks and Mobile
Broadband
As the use of 2G phones became more widespread and people
began to utilize mobile phones in their daily lives, it became clear that demand
for data services (such as access to the internet) was growing. Furthermore,
experience from fixed broadband services showed there would also be an ever
increasing demand for greater data speeds. The 2G technology was nowhere near up
to the job, so the industry began to work on the next generation of technology
known as 3G. The main technological difference that distinguishes 3G technology
from 2G technology is the use of packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission.In addition, the
standardization process focused on requirements more than technology (2 Mbit/s
maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for
example).Inevitably this led to many competing standards with
different contenders pushing their own technologies, and the vision of a single
unified worldwide standard looked far from reality. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption
of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to
the protocol whilst retaining backwards
compatibility.
1973- 1990
Prior to 1973, cellular mobile phone technology was
limited to phones installed in cars and other
vehicles.
On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first analog
mobile phone call using a heavy prototype model. He called Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
There was a long race between Motorola and Bell Labs to produce the first portable mobile phone.
Cooper is the first inventor named on "Radio telephone system" filed on October
17, 1973 with the US Patent Office and later issued as
US Patent 3,906,166. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable
communication products (and Cooper's boss) was also named on the patent. He
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.
Digital
Networks 1990’s - late
1990’s
In the 1990's, the 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the
GSM standard. These differed from the previous generation by
using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out-of-band phone-to-network signaling. The rise in mobile
phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw the advent of prepaid phones
In 1991 the first GSM network launched in Finland. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems
in Europe were higher than those in America, though
with some overlap. For example, the 900 MHz frequency range was used for
both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G
systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems. In
America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as
AMPS and displaced some of the existing
analog channels.
Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a
trend away from the larger "brick" phones toward tiny 100–200g hand-held
devices. This change was possible not only through technological improvements
such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also
because of the higher density of cell sites to accommodate increasing usage. The
latter meant that the average distance transmission from phone to the base
station shortened, leading to increased battery life whilst on the
move.
High Speed IP Data
Networks and Mobile
Broadband
As the use of 2G phones became more widespread and people
began to utilize mobile phones in their daily lives, it became clear that demand
for data services (such as access to the internet) was growing. Furthermore,
experience from fixed broadband services showed there would also be an ever
increasing demand for greater data speeds. The 2G technology was nowhere near up
to the job, so the industry began to work on the next generation of technology
known as 3G. The main technological difference that distinguishes 3G technology
from 2G technology is the use of packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission.In addition, the
standardization process focused on requirements more than technology (2 Mbit/s
maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for
example).Inevitably this led to many competing standards with
different contenders pushing their own technologies, and the vision of a single
unified worldwide standard looked far from reality. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption
of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to
the protocol whilst retaining backwards
compatibility.