Mobile phones (or cell phones, smartphones, etc.) have become an integral part of our daily lives, many people finding it very difficult to imagine life without the possibility of making a quick call from wherever they might be (or, better said, as long as they're within the specific area covered by their mobile operator). Furthermore, most mobile phones are capable of providing a whole range of extra-functions, from the capability of taking photos and shooting video clips to music playback, Internet browsing and a lot more.

However, things were not always like this. In fact, I'm pretty sure that most people using mobile phones today don't even remember how their first cellies looked like, let alone just how big and clunky the first ever mobile phones were. I, for one, do remember my first portable phones, namely one large Nokia 2110 model, which, without a doubt, could have easily been used as a self-defense weapon in case of trouble (luckily, that wasn't the case).

The point is that the overall form factor and size of mobile phones have also changed a lot over the years, and for this reason, we've decided to go back in time to the moment it all began, so that, eventually, you'll get an idea why you're now able to read this article from your smartphone's browser.

Back to the beginnings: the two-way radio  

As some of you probably know, mobile phones are based on radio technology and, to some extent, are nothing more than two-way radios (well, the concept is much more evolved, but that's beside the point). This is the reason why our first stop in the history of mobile phones is this particular subject.

So, two-way radios became quite popular in the 1930's and 1940's (despite appearing as early as the 1920's), when they were installed in a wide array of vehicles, including here mostly taxis, trucks, police cars and so on (just about where you're likely to find them today as well). Not only did they build around them a very serious user community, but also provided the foundation for a whole new concept, namely that of radio-telephony.

In fact, the first radio-telephones appeared even before World War II, albeit their use was rather limited to some special-purpose communications, such as airplanes or ships. Nevertheless, engineers used these concepts in order to develop the next step in the evolution of mobile phones.

The mobile radio-telephone

Now, although two-way radios made it possible for users to communicate while being on the go, it wasn't like people were able to simply pick up the phone and contact the person using a two-way radio. However, the first service that allowed exactly this type of functionality was developed by AT&T and Southwestern Bell and introduced on June 17, 1946 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.

The systems used six channels in the 150 MHz band with a 60 kHz channel spacing and allowed users to make calls while being on the go or receive calls from landline phones. The only problem was that all calls made from landlines were "Long Distance" (the caller contacted his operator, gave the number of the mobile radio they wanted to contact, and then the operator dialed the "carrier"), which translated into higher overall costs for the person making the call.

Another disadvantage was represented by the fact that the equipment required for making and receiving calls while being on the road was actually pretty bulky, and needed a hefty amount of power. Plus, since the number of receivers was initially pretty low, the calls would often get mixed up or the audio would be pretty bad, while the security of the conversation was extremely bad.

However, in spite of its shortcomings, this Mobile Telephone System (MTS) opened up the door for more developments in this field, including here the first truly portable phones. Moreover, towards the end of the 1940's (namely, on March 1, 1948), the first fully automatic radiotelephone service began operating in Richmond, Indiana, eliminating the need for a human operator and thus further cutting costs.

The first "mobile" phone from Ericsson - "just" 40 kilos

Although many developments in the field of portable communications were carried out in the United States, Europe didn't lag behind. Hence, the first fully automatic mobile phone system, called MTA (Mobile Telephone system A), was developed by Ericsson and commercially released in Sweden in 1956. The system required no manual control, but the weight of the equipment used for engaging in communications was absolutely huge, namely somewhere in the vicinity of 40 kilos.

The successor of the MTA system was called MTB and used transistors, which translated into a much lower weight (around 9 kilos). It was introduced in 1965, used DTMF signaling and attained a maximum number of 600 customers.

Evolution of mobile phones throughout the 1960's and early 1970's

While the Americans and Europeans were busy improving on designs and segmenting the mobile spectrum, Russian and East-European scientists also tackled this particular field. For example, a 3-kg radiophone, called LK-1, was created by Russian scientist Leonid Kupriyanovich in Moscow in 1957, and featured a rotary dial and antenna, able to communicate with a base station on a distance of maximum 30 kilometers. The next year, Kupriyanovich came up with an even smaller version, which weighed only around 500 grams.

Also in 1958, the USSR began to deploy its first mobile phone service, called "Altay," dedicated to motorists. What's really interesting to mention here is the fact that some upgraded versions of the "Altay" are still in use in the most remote parts of Russia.

Another interesting evolution was represented by the pocket mobile automatic phone RAT-0,5, combined with a base station RATZ-10 (RATC-10), a system developed by a team of Bulgarian researchers. Apparently, this system allowed one station to service up to six customers.

Another important problem solved during this period was that of "call handoff" between different cells. Initially, users were only able to talk while in the radius of a certain receiver (or within a "cell"), but this problem was solved in 1970 by Amos E. Joel, Jr., an Bell Labs engineer, who invented an automatic "call handoff" system to allow mobile phones to move through several cell areas during a single conversation without loss of conversation.

In December 1971, AT&T submitted a proposal for cellular service to the Federal Communications Commission; unfortunately, the FCC approved the proposal only in 1982. By then, Europe had already taken the lead in the field of mobile communications, via the ARP network, which was launched in 1971 in Finland.

1973 – the first analog mobile phone call in US is made

Despite the fact that mobile communications had been there for quite a long time, the first "official" mobile phone call was carried out in 1973. The two parties involved were Dr. Martin Cooper from Motorola and Dr. Joel S. Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs, who were actually rivals in this particular field. The handheld used in this operation was in fact a prototype of the first "true" mobile phone, Motorola's DynaTAC.

The first-generation (1G) mobile phone and networks

The delays by the FCC led to the United States losing the head start in mobile telephone deployment. Hence, the first commercial launch of cellular telecoms was made by NET in Tokyo Japan in 1979, followed by the NMT system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, over the course of 1981. Other similar systems deployed around the world were AMPS (United States), TACS, RTMI, C-Net, and Radiocom 2000.

In spite of the fact that mobile networks began popping out around the world in the 1980's, the terminals they used could hardly be considered portable, since they were generally pretty large and occupied a lot of space. However, things changed dramatically with the arrival on the market of the Motorola Dyna 8000X, which was one of the first phones that could really be carried around easily, without requiring a briefcase (or worse) in order to do so.

The second-generation (2G) mobile phones and networks

Research and development in the field of mobile communications (as well as the popularity that mobile communications enjoyed) led to some serious improvements in the field of cellular telephony over the course of the 1990's, starting with the emergence of "second generation" (2G) mobile phone systems such as GSM, IS-136 ("TDMA"), iDEN and IS-95 ("CDMA").

These systems provided some serious improvements over their predecessors (digital circuit switched transmission and the introduction of advanced and fast phone-to-network signaling), and were rapidly adopted around the world, the first GSM network to start operation being Finland's Radiolinja, in 1991.

While the quality of the mobile services improved, the size of the handhelds decreased. Hence, during this period, smaller and slimmer phones became the norm, one of the most important examples being Motorola's StarTAC, which can be considered the first cell phone one could actually carry around in his/her pocket. Plus, it was also the first cell phone to feature the "clamshell" form factor, all previous models falling under the "candybar" category.

Also during the 1990's, the first handheld featuring a built-in antenna (as opposed to an external one) was developed. That distinction belongs to the TCP-6000 (developed by Toshiba and released as the Hagenuk GlobalHandy), which arrived on the market in 1996, two full years ahead of Nokia's much more famous 8810 model (which also featured a built-in antenna).

The leaps forward attained by both cellular operators and handheld manufacturers opened up the way for all sorts of improvements and new services in the area of cell phones. For example, this is when the SMS appeared, the first machine-generated SMS message being sent in the UK in 1991 and then the first human-to-human message being sent in 1993 in Finland.

SMS (and its successor, the MMS) ushered in a whole new concept of communication, many people (mostly young) preferring to send an SMS rather than calling, also because these messages are much cheaper than actually making a voice call (in fact, the cost of sending an SMS is almost equal to zero for the operators, so I don't really have a clue just why they're not making them completely free).

Another innovation brought about by 2G systems was the possibility of adding multimedia content to one's phone, one of the best examples being that of ringtones, which have created a whole new market for musicians.

Towards the end of the 2G period, the first mobile phones featuring a built-in camera appeared. In fact, the first ever such device was developed by Sharp in 2000 and rolled out in Japan under the name of J-SH04. Since then, camera modules built within mobile phones have evolved a lot, and now, even low-end handheld devices sport such a module.

Also around that period of time, the concept of Bluetooth in mobile phones was introduced, with the first handheld to incorporate such a module reportedly being Sony Ericsson's T36. After that, due to the numerous features it enables, Bluetooth became a must for any serious phone.

The third-generation (3G) mobile phones and networks

Actually, this is where our short history of the mobile phone reaches modern times. Practically, what 3G networks provide, compared to 2G (as well as the extensions of 2G, like 2.5G and 2.75G) is the seamless transmission of data, as well as voice, via cellular networks. Practically, by enabling this kind of functionality, cellular networks have opened up a world of possibilities for handheld manufacturers as well.

Japan is the place where the first 3G networks made their appearance, as Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial 3G network on October 1, 2001, using the WCDMA technology. The first 3G networks on the rival CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology were launched by SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea in 2002, and then 3G erupted all over the world.

Now, let's see how the functions enabled by 3G networks have affected the handhelds themselves. First of all, the possibility of accessing one's e-mail account has become the norm (with RIM and its BlackBerry handhelds setting the norm in business communications), and the same can now be said about Internet browsing.

Furthermore, the developments in mobile hardware and processing have led to the appearance of operating systems for mobile devices, and then to the whole "smartphone" concept, which was initially a cross between the more industrial-oriented PDAs and cell phones, but now has reached a whole new level.

Moreover, developments in display technology also led to the appearance of the first mobile phones equipped with touchscreen displays (Apple's iPhone being the first such product to arrive on the market), a trend that is mainstream now.

Prospects for the future

Recent developments in the industry clearly point out to the fact that mobile phones are here to stay, although it's still hard to predict what direction they'll eventually take. Thus, the most plausible scenario is that mobile phones will slowly turn into tiny, ultra-portable computers, able to carry out a huge array of functions besides voice communication. Plus, since they'll be eventually equipped either with flexible or even holographic displays, we might witness a complete overhaul of this concept over the following years, the first signs of things to come being already here.