Farley- Mobile telephone history
Farley begins this weeks readings by discussing a mobile telephone as a wireless device which connects to the public switched telephone network and is offered to the general public by a common carrier of public utility. Farley mentions that telephone history began in the 1940s after WW II, but the true advancement of mobile telephone technologies continued to develop after the war. During this time people saw it important for civilian communication to take place and not just military communication. Many telephone companies focused on developing landline telephone services, but mobile radio research was still taking place. America took the lead in the telephone development.
Farley mentions that the first mobile telephones followed a radio format in which people communicated through frequencies restricted to the specific areas during the mid 1940s. There was a centrally located antenna transmitted to mobiles moving across a wide area. The company used six different channels in the begging of this process, but over time it had to be cut down to three channels because of so much interference between the channels. The fist cellular telephone system was first discussed in the end of 1947, but better technology was needed for things to continue. During the year 1948 the first fully automatic radiotelephone service began, but it only reached out to a few users because there was not enough money and resources to build a high capacity mobile telephone system. Farley continues to discuss the history and development of mobile telephone technologies. As time progressed nations around the world were beginning to jump on the bandwagon and newer and better systems were being developed. Eventually satellites started to come into use for transmitting signals from one phone to an operator to the other phone. This started around the 1980s. The hardware systems required to communicate on mobile telephones started out to be very large and required a lot of accessories and labor to work. As time has gone on, the hardware has significantly decreased in size.
First of all, I had no idea the mobile telephone research as been happening for so many years. I thought that things really only started in perhaps the 1980s when people were walking around with huge briefcases which held their phones and all the additional accessories. I had no idea that people were first working with radio frequencies to transmit messages and communicate during the 1940s. Reading this article gave me a very new understanding of the work and research that went into the development of mobile telephones. Additionally, I find it shocking to see how long it took to develop mobile telephones. People lived fine before cell phones were popular and widely used, yet today can not live without their cell phones. Even I feel lost/uncomfortable when I forget my phone. I can not believe what an impact mobile telephones have had on people and their communication techniques and interactivity. I find it crazy to think about my parents having to call from a land line and set up meeting times when traveling etc. yet today we say "I'll call you when I am twenty minutes away so we can meet up". I guess the development of the mobile telephone is no different than the other new media technologies discussed in class previously. It has changed the way people interact due to the speed, accessibility, variability, and mobility functions of the device.