History of Mobile Phones

The basic concept of cellular phones began in 1947 when researchers looked at crude mobile phones and realized that by using small cells with frequency reuse could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially, however, the technology to do it was nonexistent.

A mobile or cellular telephone is a long-range, portable electronic device for personal telecommunications over long distances.

Early years

Mobile rigs were the beginning of mobile phones, along with taxicab radios, two way radios in police cruisers, and the like. A large community of mobile radio users, known as the mobileers, popularized the technology that would eventually give way to the mobile phone.

Originally, mobile phones were permanently installed in vehicles, but later versions such as the so-called "bag phones" were equipped with a cigarette lighter plug so that they could also be carried, and thus could be used as either mobile or as portable phones.

First Generation Cellular

The first hand held mobile phone to become commercially available was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which received approval in 1983. Mobile phones began to proliferate through the 1980s with the introduction of "cellular" phones based on cellular networks with multiple base stations located relatively close to each other, and protocols for the automated "handover" between two cells when a phone moved from one cell to the other.

At this time analog transmission was in use in all systems. Mobile phones were somewhat larger than current ones, and at first, all were designed for permanent installation in cars .

In Switzerland, the name for the big car-based phone models was "Nationales Autotelefon", and persists as the common designation for mobile phones. Soon, some of these bulky units were converted for use as "transportable" phones the size of a briefcase. . Motorola introduced the first truly portable, hand held phone.

Mobile-phone culture and customs

In fewer than twenty years, mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used primarily by the business elite, to a pervasive low-cost personal item. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. In the United States, 70% of children own mobile phones. It is not uncommon for young adults to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. In some developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure, the mobile phone has become widespread. According to the CIA World Factbook the U.K. now has more mobile phones than people.

Technology

Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and nation to nation. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic microwaves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole, or building.

The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, usually 5 to 8 miles (approximately 8 to 13 kilometres) away. When the cellular phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations.

As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will "handoff" to various cell sites during calls, or while waiting between calls it will reselect cell sites.