Mobile Phone History

Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. Compared to today's furious pace of development, it may seem odd that wireless didn't come along sooner. There are many reasons for that. Technology, disinterest, and to some extent regulation limited early United States radio-telephone development. As the vacuum tube and the transistor made possible the early telephone network, the wireless revolution began only after low cost microprocessors and digital switching became available. And while the Bell System built the finest landline telephone system in the world, they never seemed truly committed to mobile telephony. Their wireless engineers were brilliant and keen but the System itself held them back. Federal regulations also hindered many projects but in Europe, where state run telephone companies controlled their own telecom development, although, admittedly, without competition, wireless came no sooner, and in most cases, later. Starting in 1921 in the United States mobile radios began operating at 2 MHz, just above the present A.M. radio broadcast band. [Young] These were chiefly experimental police department radios, with practical systems not implemented until the 1940s. [FCC] Police and emergency services drove mobile radio pioneering, with little thought given to private telephone use.

In 1934 the United States Congress created the Federal Communications Commission. In addition to regulating landline interstate telephone business, they also began managing the radio spectrum. It decided who would get what frequencies. It gave priority to emergency services, government agencies, utility companies, and services it thought helped the most people. Radio users like a taxi service or a tow truck dispatch company required little spectrum to conduct their business. Radio telephone used large frequency allocations to serve a few people. The FCC designated no radio-telephone channels until after World War II.

On June 17, 1946 in Saint Louis, Missouri, AT&T and Southwestern Bell introduced the first American commercial mobile radio-telephone service. Mobiles used newly issued vehicle radio-telephone licenses granted to Southwestern Bell by the FCC. They operated on six channels in the 150 MHz band with a 60 kHz channel spacing. [Peterson] Bad cross channel interference, something like cross talk in a landline phone, soon forced Bell to use only three channels. In a rare exception to Bell System practice, subscribers could buy their own radio sets and not AT&T's equipment. Installed high above Southwestern Bell's headquarters at 1010 Pine Street, a centrally located antenna transmitting 250 watts paged mobiles and provided radio-telephone traffic on the downlink. Operation was straightforward, as the following describes:







LANDMARK MOBILE COMMUNICATION



1982- The Beginning


Nordic Telecom and Netherlands PTT propose to CEPT (Conference of European Post and Telecommunications) the development of a new digital cellular standard that would cope with the ever a burgeoning demands on European mobile networks.

The European Commission (EC) issues a directive which requires member states to reserve frequencies in the 900 MHz band for GSM to allow for roaming.



Main GSM radio transmission techniques are chosen


1987


September - 13 operators and administrators from 12 areas in the CEPT GSM advisory group sign the charter GSM (Groupe Spéciale Mobile) MoU "Club" agreement, with a launch date of 1 July 1991.

The original French name was later changed to Global System for Mobile Communications, but the original GSM acronym stuck.

GSM spec drafted.


1989


The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) defined GSM as the internationally accepted digital cellular telephony standard

GSM becomes an ETSI technical committee


1990


Phase 1 GSM 900 specifications are frozen
DCS adaptation starts
Validation systems implemented
First GSM World congress in Rome with 650 Participants


1991


First GSM spec demonstrated
DCS specifications are frozen
GSM World Congress Nice has 690 Participants


1992


January - First GSM network operator is Oy Radiolinja Ab in Finland
December 1992 - 13 networks on air in 7 areas
GSM World Congress Berlin - 630 Participants


1993


GSM demonstrated for the first time in Africa at Telkom '93 in Cape Town
Roaming agreements between several operators established
December 1993 - 32 networks on air in 18 areas
GSM World Congress Lisbon with 760 Participants
Telkom '93 held in Cape Town. First GSM systems shown


1994


First GSM networks in Africa launched in South Africa
Phase 2 data/fax bearer services launched
Vodacom becomes first GSM network in the world to implement data/fax
GSM World Congress Athens with 780 Participants
December 1994 - 69 networks on air in 43 areas


1995


GSM MoU is formally registered as an Association registered in Switzerland - 156 members from 86 areas.
GSM World Congress Madrid with 1400 Participants
December 1995 117 networks on air in 69 areas
Fax, data and SMS roaming started
GSM phase 2 standardization is completed, including adaptation for PCS 1900 (PCS)
First PCS 1900 network live 'on air' in the USA
Telecom '95 Geneva - Nokia shows 33.6 kbps multimedia data via GSM
Namibia goes on-line
Ericsson 337 wins GSM phone of the year
US FCC auctions off PCS licenses


1996


GSM MoU is formally registered as an Association registered in Switzerland
December 1996 120 networks on air in 84 areas
GSM World Congress in Cannes
GSM MoU Plenary held in Atlanta GA, USA
8K SIM launched
Pre-Paid GSM SIM Cards launched
Bundled billing introduced in South Africa
Libya goes on-line
Option International launches world's first GSM/Fixed-line modem


1997


Zimbabwe goes live
GSM World Congress Cannes 21/2/97
Mozambique goes live
Iridium birds launched
First dual-band GSM 900-1900 phone launched by Bosch


1998


Botswana GSM goes live
GSM World Congress Cannes (2/98)
Vodacom Introduces Free VoiceMail
MTN Gets Uganda Tender
GSM SIM Cracked in USA
Over 2m GSM 1900 users
MTN Gets Rwanda Tender
MTN follows with free voicemail
Rwanda GSM Live
First HSCSD trials in Singapore
Vodacom launches Yebo!Net 10/98
Iridium Live 11/98
First GSM Africa Conference (11/98)
125m GSM 900/1800/1900 users worldwide (12/98)
Option International launches FirstFone
MTN launches CarryOver minutes


1999


GSM Conference in Cannes 2/99
165m GSM 900/1800/1900 users worldwide
GPRS trials begin and USA and Scandanavia 1/99
WAP trials in France and Italy 1/99
CellExpo Africa 5/99
Eight Bidders for Third SA Cell License
GSM MoU Joins 3GPP
MTN SA Head of GSM MoU
First GPRS networks go live
Bluetooth specification v1.0 released


2000


GSM Conference in Cannes 3/2000
By 12/2000 480m GSM 900/1800/1900 users worldwide
First GPRS networks roll out
Mobey Forum Launched
MeT Forum Launched
Location Interoperability Forum Launched
First GPRS terminals seen
Nokia releases SmartMessaging spec
SyncML spec released


2001


GSM Conference in Cannes 2/2001
By 5/2001 500m GSM 900/1800/1900 users worldwide
16 billion SMS message sent in April 2001

500 million people are GSM users

Nokia phone history