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Chemist
1843 Micheal Faraday a talented chemist begins researching the possibility that space can conduct electricity. His research starts the wheels turning for many other 19th century scientists. At the time, many of them were referred to as “crackpots”. -
Dentist
1865 A Virginia Dentist/Scientist, Dr. Mahlon Loomis, develops a method of communicating through the earth’s atmosphere by using an electrical conductor. He does this by flying two kites, that are rigged with copper screens and wires, which are connected to the ground on two separate mountains about 18 miles apart. He later received a grant from the U.S. Congress for $50,000. (A fairly large chunk of change for 1865) -
Police department
1921 The Police Department in Detroit, Mich. begins installing mobile radios, operating around 2 MHz, in their squad cars. They encounter many problems such as overcrowding on the channels and terrible interference. -
Mobile radio
1945 The first mobile-radio-telephone service is established in St. Louis, Miss. The system is comprised of six channels that add up to 150 MHz. The project is approved by the FCC, but due to massive interference, the equipment barely works -
First Phone
The first official mobile phone was used in Sweden by the Swedish police in 1946 -
Testing
Finally cell phone testing is permitted by the FCC in Chicago. The Bell Telephone Company gets the license; they are in a partnership with AT&T which is a gerneral effort to battle the stubborn FCC -
Portable headset
Dr Martin Cooper, is considered the inventor of the first portable handset. Dr. Cooper, former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, and the first person to make a call on a portable cellular phone. -
Dr cooper
Dr. Cooper set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac. Mr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public. ` -
FCC
1974 The FCC actually starts to encourage cell phone companies to push forward the “cellular idea”. But unfortunately a law suit arises with Western Electric, who is the closest company to succeeding at the time, and it rules that they are not allowed to manufacture terminal and network phone systems under the same roof. This is an effort to prevent a monopoly. But it also prevents progress. -
At&t
AT&T adapts its own cellular plan for the city of Chicago, but the FCC is still uneasy about putting the plan into action. They have concerns about its success. -
Cell phone testing permitied
1977 Finally cell phone testing is permitted by the FCC in Chicago. The Bell Telephone Company gets the license; they are in a partnership with AT&T which is a gerneral effort to battle the stubborn FCC. -
CDMA Phone
Cdma -
2g Phones
Phones based on 2G technology were much smaller than the brick telephones of the mid to late 80's -
Fcc
1981 The FCC makes firm rules about the growing cell phone industry in dealing with manufactures. It finally rules that Western Electric can manufacture products for both cellular and terminal use. (Basically they admit that they put the phone companies about 7 years behind) -
Tdma phone
TDMA -
Cellular technology industry
1988 One of the most important years in cell phone evolution. The Cellular Technology Industry Association is created and helps to make the industry into an empire. One of its biggest contributions is when it helped create TDMA phone technology, the most evolved cell phone yet. It becomes available to the public in 1991. -
Cell phoness
Cellular phones from the early 1990's are considered being second generation (2G) and they were able to work on mobile phone systems such as GSM TDMA) and IS-95 (CDMA). -
Bell south
2001 BellSouth announces that it is leaving the pay phone business because there is too much competition from cell phones -
Iphone
The Iphone is touch screen cell phone, and is one of the newer phones. -
At&t
1947 AT&T comes out with the first radio-car-phones that can be used only on the highway between New York and Boston; they are known as push-to-talk phones. The system operates at frequencies of about 35 to 44 MHz, but once again there is a massive amount of interference in the system. AT&T declares the project a failure.