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Fessenden demonstrates a wireless radio telephone
Cellphones have 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 and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1983. Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. -
First US Patent for a Wireless Phone
U.S. Patent Number 887357 for a wireless telephone, issued 1908 to Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this to "cave radio" phones and not directly to cellular telephony as we know it today. -
Berlin-Hamburg Train
As early as 1926 radio Telephony as used to communicte with the trains running between Hamburg and Berlin. -
Zero Generation (0G) of mobile telephones
In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile telephones was introduced. 0G mobile telephones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not officially categorized as mobile phones, since they did not support the automatic change of channel frequency during calls, which allows the user to move from one cell (the base station coverage area) to another cell, a feature called "handover". -
Cells for mobile phones
The introduction of cells for mobile phone base stations, invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T, was further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. -
First call on Handheld Mobile phone
Motorola is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modem, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Motorola manager Martin Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973 -
First Commercil Cellular Network
first commercial cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. -
Nokia's First Mobile Phone
Nokia Mobira Senator (1982)
It may look more like a boombox than a portable phone, but this boxy, bulky device was actually Nokia's first mobile (if you can call it that) phone. Introduced in 1982, the Nokia Mobira Senator was designed for use in cars. After all, you wouldn't want to use this phone while walking: It weighed about 21 pounds -
Bell Labs invent "Call Handoff"
Bell Labs invented such a "call handoff" feature, which allowed mobile-phone users to travel through several cells during the same conversation -
Introduction of 2G Technology
The first digital cellular phone call was made in the United States in 1990, in 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) opened in Finland. 2G phone systems were characterized by digital circuit switched transmission and the introduction of advanced and fast phone to network signaling. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher though with some overlap, for example the 900 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe and so such 1G systems were rapidl -
First Digitial Cell Phone Call
The first digital cellular phone call was made in the United States in 1990 -
Pre-iPhone Introduction
Pre-iPhone: BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993) A cell phone with added PDA functions isn't news today. But in 1993, it was a novel idea. The Simon Personal Communicator, jointly marketed by IBM and BellSouth, was the first mobile phone to add PDA features. It was a phone, pager, calculator, address book, fax machine, and e-mail device in one package, albeit a 20-ounce package that cost $900 -
Introduction of Text Messaging
Text messaging, also known as Short Message Service (SMS), began in the late 1980’s by a group of Europeans who were trying to improve systems for the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), but was used by a civilian in 1993 by an engineering student totally by accident. -
First Commercial Text Messaging
The first commercial usage of text mesaging was implemented by Nokia in China and Japan in 1995 -
The Introduction of Cell Phone Fashion
Ahead of Its Time: Motorola StarTAC (1996)
Before the Motorola StarTAC was introduced in 1996, cell phones were more about function than fashion. But this tiny, lightweight phone ushered in the concept that style was just as important, ultimately paving the way for today's sleek-looking phones like the Motorola Razr. This 3.1-ounce clamshell-style phone, which could easily be clipped to a belt, was the smallest and lightest of its time. In fact, it was smaller and lighter than many of today's te -
Introduction of Bluetooth Technology
Its intended basic purpose was to be a wire replacement technology in order to rapidly transfer voice and data. There were many doubters who believed Bluetooth would be a distant memory in just a couple of years. However, multiple years have passed and Bluetooth continues to make strides and advancements everyday. -
Wedb Integration to Cell Phones
DotComs Ran on These: Nokia 6160 (1998) or Nokia 8260 (2000)
In the late 1990s, Nokia's candybar-style cell phones were all the rage. Sporting a monochrome display, an external antenna, and a boxy, 5.2-inch tall frame, the Nokia 6160 was the company's best-selling handset of the 1990s. The somewhat sleeker Nokia 8260, introduced in 2000, added a colorful case and lost some of the 6160's bulk: it stood only about 4 inches tall and weighed 3.4 ounces, compared with almost 6 ounces for the 6160. -
Introduction of the Blackberry
The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1999 which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on e-mail. RIM currently offers BlackBerry e-mail service to non-BlackBerry devices, s -
Introduction of Smart Phone
Early Smart Phone: Kyocera QCP6035 (2000)
If you're one of the many fans of the Palm OS-based Treo phone, you might want to thank Kyocera. The company's QCP6035 smart phone, which hit the retail market in early 2001 and cost between $400 and $500 (depending on the carrier), was the first Palm-based phone to be widely available to users. It included a measly 8MB of memory, and sported a bland monochrome display, but it paved the way for future products. -
3G and Standard Standaridization
Not long after the introduction of 2G networks, projects began to develop third generation (3G) systems. Inevitably there were many different standards with different contenders pushing their own technologies. Quite differently from 2G systems, however, the meaning of 3G has been standardized in the IMT-2000 standardization processing. This process did not standardize on a technology, but rather on a set of requirements (2 Mbit/s maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for example). At t -
Combining the PDA with the Cellphone
PDA to Phone: Handspring Treo 180 (2001)
Back when Palm and Handspring were still rivals, Handspring made waves with the Treo 180. More PDA than phone, the Treo 180 came in two versions: one with a QWERTY keyboard for typing (pictured), and another (the Treo 180g) that used Graffiti text input instead. Like the Kyocera QCP6035, it featured a monochrome screen, but boasted 16MB of memory. -
Swivel Fashion--Intro of IT Phone
Swivel It: Danger Hiptop (2002)
Before the T-Mobile Sidekick became Hollywood's "it" phone, it was known as the Danger Hiptop. PC World liked it so much that we named it our product of the year in 2003. While its voice capabilities were only mediocre, this was one of the first devices to offer truly functional mobile Web browsing, e-mail access, and instant messaging. Plus, it pioneered that nifty swiveling design. -
Cell Camera
Photo Opp: Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
Today, most cell phones come with a built-in camera. But, just a few years ago, a camera phone was hard to come by. In 2002, Sanyo and Sprint debuted the Sanyo SCP-5300 PCS phone, which they claimed was the first mobile phone available in America with a built-in camera. (A camera phone from Sharp had been available in Japan for a few years.) At its highest resolution, it captured VGA (640 by 480) images--a far cry from today's 5-megapixel camera phones like the N -
Cell Phone Recycling Act
In late September, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Cell Phone Recycling Act of 2004 (Assembly Bill 2901), which requires cell phone sellers to take back and recycle old phones at no cost to consumers, beginning on July 1, 2006. California is the first state to impose such a requirement, says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, an environmental group headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. Each day, Californians cast aside about 25,000 cell phones, of whi -
The Music Cell Phone
It promised to bring together the best of two worlds: Apple's excellent iTunes music player and Motorola's cell phone design expertise. The Motorola Rokr, released in September 2005, was the first music phone to incorporate Apple's music software. It allowed users to transfer songs purchased from iTunes to the phone for listening on the go. Unfortunately, users found song transfers to be painfully slow, and many were stymied by the 100-song limit imposed on their music collections. Still, this h -
295 Million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide
295 Million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide, which reflected 9% of the total worldwide subscriber base. About two thirds of these are on the WCDMA standard and one third on the EV-DO standard. The 3G telecoms services generated over 120 Billion dollars of revenues during 2007 and at many markets the majority of new phones activated were 3G phones. In Japan and South Korea the market no longer supplies phones of the second generation. Earlier in the decade there were doubts about whether 3G
