History of the Cellular Phone
Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the 1940’s when commercial mobile telephony began. ... Anything AT&T produced had to work reliably with the rest of their network and it had to make economic sense, something not possible for them with the few customers permitted by the limited frequencies available at that time (“History”, screen 2). Frequency availability was in turn controlled by the Federal Communications Commission, whose regulations and unresponsiveness constituted the most significant factors hindering radio-telephone development, especially with cellular radio, delaying that technology in America by perhaps 10 years. ... Japanese manufacturers, although not first with a working cellular radio, did equip some of the first car mounted mobile telephone services, their technology equal to whatever America was producing. Their products enabled several first commercial cellular telephone systems, starting in Bahrain, Tokyo, and Osaka (“Selling”, screen 4). The basic concept of cellular phones began in 1947, when researchers looked at crude mobile (car) phones and realized that by using small cells (range of service) with frequency reuse they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially.