What is the History of Cell Phones?
The beginning history of cell phones is based upon radio technology that was developed from the 1940’s onward. For instance the beginning of cell phones can be traced to the innovation in taxi cabs, police cars and other service vehicles where two way radios were used to communicate with one another or with a central base. Early cell phone communication technology could be even traced back to individuals with special radios that can patch into a phone line via live operator to make a phone call.
The first commercial cellular telephones were tested in the late 1970s by Illinois Bell in Chicago, Illinois, and they were a great success. Cellular service carriers began nationwide operations in the mid-1980s operating in the 800- to 900-MHz frequency band. Before the availability of cellular radio service, mobile telephone service consisted of bulky mobile telephone radio units. These two-way radio units communicated with a single antenna in a city or area. The radio signals often interfered with those of other commercial radios, and due to the technology of the day the frequencies could not be reused as they can today. Therefore, limited numbers of channels were available for callers, and the service was unreliable and costly. Because of the consumer demand for cellular telecommunications, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the mid-1990s authorized up to six additional mobile telephone service providers in each service area.
