Farley - "Mobile Telphone History"
A mobile telephone is a wireless device which connects to the public switched telephone network and is offered to the general public by a common carrier or public utility (Farley, 2005). This definition sets the tone for this weeks focus of the history of mobile technologies, specifically cell phones. During the time of World War II, there was a need for greater communication amongst civilians and America began to speculate a wireless connection through phone for the public. In 1946, the first mobile radio-telephone service began courtesy of AT&T and Southwestern Bell, simply called Mobile Telephone Service (MTS). MTS used a central antenna to transmit signals to different mobiles across a wide area, which were all car based radio-telephones. Initially MTS used six channels but unexpected interference between the channels eventually cut it down to three channels. The MTS gained popularity and began to request more frequencies, and though they were awarded the additional frequencies, the FCC also granted frequencies to other companies, creating competition among sprouting mobile companies.
Outside of the US, develpoments came at a little slower of a pace because at the time most countries did not allow tghe public radiotelephones. The few exceptions were the Dutch (who created the first public radiotelephonbe network) and Sweden (who designed an automaticmobile telephone system known as the MTA). Japan also emerged as a powerhouse because they emphasized quality in their creations. Back in the US, in 1964, to relpace the now aging, MTS, the Bell System introduced the Imporved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS). This new system introduced direct dialing to America and also influenced other countries to axe their previous systems for much needed improvements (during which we see the rise of Nokia). It was not until 1969, that the first all transitor mobile phones were introduced from a large manufactuer (Motorola). Farley briefly takes the focus off of mobile phones to note that in 1971, the first commercial microprocessor was introduced. This was a basically a small computer on a silicon chip that began slowly being implemented into phones and are what we currently see today in phones. A rivalry sparked between Motorola and AT&T, subsequently leading to Motorola develpoing the first handheld mobile phone. Additional mobile phone deployment soon began all acroos the world. By 1981, we see the beginning of North American and Nordic telephone networks. In 1983, the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was developed in Chicago. The AMPS was the first commercial cellular service in America and also brought the Motorola Dyna-TAC (one of the earliest handheld phones) to the public. Korea soon entered the market with their creation of the KMT and also proved to be a worthy competitior in the cellular phone market. Farley notes that Europe was responsible for providing the first all digital system, GSM (currently the most popular system with over 1 billion users). America eventually followed the fully digital trend in the 90's with its IS-54. Other important events in the 90's include Nokia introducing, the Communicator ( a phone equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard, word processor, and calendar programs), and the commercialization of the Internet (which uses IP packet switching like many cell phones began to do as well). The 2000's brought even more innovations to the mobile phone such as the integration of cameras and various data services like we see in today's Blackberry and other smart phones.
I found this article very informative. I had no idea that the development of the cell phone started so early and took so long to master. I remember seeing older people with the giant cell phones in the 90's that I envied so much, and now merely 10 years later I see the sleek new designs of cell phones everyday and what they could potentially be. I also found it interesting that the development of the cell phone was much like that of the Internet in the way that it took many different systems to finally get one that could work efficiently for everyone. The idea of mobility is also very obvious in this text. Another thing that puts mobile phones in the category of new media is the fact that it is clearly adapted from a form of old media, the stationary home phone. The constant need for humans to be able to interact with others by not having to physically be there, raises questions what is next for cell phones and what possible innovations could still be made to this significant communcation tool.