Introduction of the Cell Phone

The journey continued with the introduction of the first generation cell phone. The early mobile phone began as two-way radios and first phones to allow direct dialing. These phones were released by Ericsson in Sweden in1956 and called MTA for Mobile Telephone System A. The phones were heavy and bulky and installed in cars with only about 150 users. Leonid Kupriyanovich created the radiophone or wearable mobile phone in 1957 in the USSR. Although, the phone required a base station to operate, it could be used by several people and weighed a lot less than the MTA. In December of 1971, AT&T submitted their cell network proposal to the Federal Communication Commission. The proposal was kept wrapped up in committee hearings for eleven years before the FCC finally approved the cell phone in the United States. Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola launched the first handheld cell phone in 1973. AT&T created the first cell network in 1978 in Chicago before the FCC approved the network in 1983. The early phones all used analog system, but were designed to be installed in vehicles not to be carried around. The reason was because they were still quite large and heavy and often the size of a briefcase. It would be the mid to late 1980’s when Motorola designed the first handheld cell phones. The first cell phone is pictured at left.

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