The Development of Mobile Phones

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The developement of mobile phones has become so fast that it is difficult to keep up with it. If we look back at how it looked like in the past and where it is nowadays it is incredible to see how it has changed. With all their benefits they have become an irreplacible parts of our lives.

Basics:

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator. The calls are to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed-line phones across the world. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station. [1]
The history of mobile phones charts the development of devices which connect wirelessly to the public switched telephone network. Early devices were bulky and consumed high power and the network supported only a few simultaneous conversations. Modern cellular networks and microprocessor control systems allow automatic and pervasive use of mobile phones for voice and data communications. [2]
Before cellular phones existed there where several mobile solutions available for example Push to Talk(PTT) Mobile Telephone System(MTS) and Advanced Mobile Telephone Service(AMTS) to name a few. The …As far back as the late 1930’s Radiophones where a very important and vital means of mobile communication for the armed forces. When Analogue mobile phones where first launched they quickly became known as cellphones because they allowed the mobile phone user to travel between cell sites. Motorola the american corporation is widely believed to be the first manufacturer in the world to produce portable mobile phones that did not rely on a motor vehicle for its power. The first mobile phone call to be made on a portable phone was early in the 1970’s.
When did mobile phones enter the consumer market place?Once the strong far Eastern manufacturers saw how rapidly mobile phone usage was growing and being taken up by the consumer as well as being a ‘must have’ business tool, they lost no time in mounting a serious challenge including such manufacturers as Sony Ericcson, Sharp, LG. Panasonic, Samsung, NEC and many more.
Since the early 1990’s researchers have realised the potential of incorporating other devices into mobile phones. The camera was recognised as a very beneficial device to include. The first patent was filed as far back as 1994 by AT&T and it is claimed that the first mobile camera phone was invented in 1997 by Phillipe Kahn. By 2007 85% of mobile phones manufactured had a camera included and they are now referred to as camera phones. [3]
As early as 1947, it was realized that small cells with frequency reuse could increase traffic capacity substantially and the basic cellular concept was developed. However, the technology did not exist.
1953 -AT&T proposed to the FCC a broadband mobile telephone system to operate in the 800 MHz region.
1970 -FCC announced a tentative allocation of 75 MHz in the 800 MHz region and invited industry to submit proposals for achieving communication objectives and demonstrating feasibility.
1971 -AT&T responds with a technical report asserting feasibility by detailing how a “cellular system” might be composed. No other proposed systems were submitted to the FCC.
1974 -FCC makes a firm allocation of 40 MHz for mobile telephone service and solicited applications for developmental Systems to prove the feasibility of so-called “Cellular Systems” but because of the beginnings of Bell Systems divestiture proceedings, ruled that Western Electric could not manufacture cellular terminal equipment. This was because Western Electric makes the network equipment and the restriction from selling both terminal and network products was to prevent further monopolization.
1975 -AT&T applied for authorization to operate a developmental cellular system in Chicago.
1977 -License granted in March of 1977. Illinois Bell Telephone constructs and operates a developmental cellular system.
1978 -Mid 1978 the Equipment Test phase commenced. The Service Test-phase started in late 1978. Twenty-one hundred mobile sets were procured from three suppliers for the test and the system served over 2000 trial customers.
1981 -FCC issues standard rules and due to the direction already taken, In the Bell System divestiture proceedings, now rules that Western Electric is permitted to manufacture cellular terminals as well as the network equipment.
In the years between 1974 and 1981, AT&T Bell Labs worked with all other cellular terminal vendors to develop their cellular phones so that consumers would have quality products available to use on the cellular network. [4]
The definition of an approach supporting an End-User in the development of mobile applications is a hard task because of the characteristics and the limitations of mobile device interfaces. In this paper we present an approach and a tool to enable End-Users to visually compose their own applications directly on their mobile phone. To this aim, a touchable interface and an ad-hoc visual language have been developed, enabling the user to compose simple focused applications, named MicroApps. The user has not in charge the creation of the user interface that is automatically generated. [5]

Conclusion:

It is amazing to observe the development of mobile phones  considering their from where they started. The technology experts’ ideas are running wild bringing us some mobile phone novelties constantly and we are left only to keep imagining what is next to come.

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones
[3] http://www.ukphoneshop.com/news/general-interest/the-history-and-the-development-of-mobile-phones-mobile-phone-networks-and-mobile-ph/829/
[4] http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.wave-guide.org/archives/waveguide_3/cellular-history.html
[5] ”MicroApps Development on Mobile Phones” Stefania Cuccurullo, Rita Francese, Michele Risi and Genoveffa Tortora