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. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to 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.
The cell phone only came into existence in the late part of the seventies. Illinois Bell was the one who tested the first cell phone in Chicago, Illinois. The test was successful however; it was only in the mid eighties when service carriers started their operations. The frequency band used back then was 800-900 MHz. Several years ago, the cell phones were still bulky units. Radio signals of the service carriers often interrupt or interfere with that of commercial radios. Before, cell phone service was costly and unreliable due to the limited channels available.
The FCC reconsidered its position in 1968, stating “if the technology to build a better mobile service works, we will increase the frequencies allocation, freeing the airwaves for more mobile phones.” AT&T and Bell Labs proposed a cellular system to the FCC of many small, low-powered, broadcast towers, each covering a ‘cell’ a few miles in radius and collectively covering a larger area. Each tower would use only a few of the total frequencies allocated to the system. As the phones traveled across the area, calls would be passed from tower to tower. The first handheld 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 (hence the term car phone). Soon, some of these bulky units were converted for use as “transportable” phones the size of a briefcase. Motorola introduced the first truly portable, handheld phone.
Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls, including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organizer functions, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ring tones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and serving as a wireless modem for a PC, and soon will also serve as a console of sorts to online games and other high quality games. The total value of mobile data services exceeds the value of paid services on the Internet, and was worth 31 billion dollars in 2006. The largest categories of mobile services are music, picture downloads, video gaming, adult entertainment, gambling, video/TV.
Currently the world’s largest manufacturer of mobiles is Nokia, with a global device market share of approximately 40% in 2008. Other major mobile phone manufacturers (in order of market share) include Samsung (14%), Motorola (14%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG (7%). These manufacturers account for over 80% of all mobile phones sold and produce phones for sale in most countries.
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