March 2004
History of Technology-Cell Phones
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Sharon Broughton
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by Sharon Broughton
3G: The Next Generation Network
3G" stands for the "third generation" of mobile phones. Basically, a 3G device will provide a huge range of new functionality to your mobile. A 3G device will allow video calling (see the person you are calling!), Internet surfing, MP3 music downloads, and much more.
Your 3G device will be your PC, your phone, and your PDA all in one. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that people will live their lives around their 3G devices. You'll have the world at your fingertips: anything, anytime, anywhere (hence, 3G has been called Martini-flavoured!).
As you can see, 3G is highly ambitious and it raises a number of major technical challenges. The rate of data which a 3G device will be able to receive and transmit will be far higher than existing mobile phones. For example, in order to watch movies on a 3G device, the data rate requirement will be as much as 10 times greater than that currently achievable on existing phones. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) defines a 3G device solely in terms of its transmission speed (if your phone can transmit at 144Kbps, it's a 3G phone).
A very attractive feature of 3G is that you will be able to use your device anywhere in the world. This "global roaming" ability will require a major effort on the development of unified, worldwide standard(s).
Some pessimistic voices have emerged, questioning the viability of 3G. The problem arises from the fact that 3G services will require bandwidth (data transfer rates) far greater than current 2G phones. This will only be possible through huge investment in new radio licenses and transmission infrastructure: the UK and German 3G license auctions raised $35 and $46 billion, respectively.
Currently the only 3G network in the UK is provided by 3. Nokia has just released their first 3G phone, the 7600, to operate on 3's network.
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Phone Features: Digital camera and video recorder |
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Other models available soon: |
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In The Beginning
1843
A skilled analytical chemist by the name of Michael Faraday began exhaustive research into whether space could conduct electricity. Faraday exposed his great advances of nineteenth-century science and technology and his discoveries have had an incalculable effect on technical development toward cellular phone development.
1865
Dr. Mahlon Loomis of Virginia, a dentist, may have been the first person to communicate through wireless via the atmosphere. Between 1866 and 1873 he transmitted telegraphic messages at a distance of 18 miles between the tops of Cohocton and Beorse Deer Mountains, Virginia. He developed a method of transmitting and receiving messages by using the Earth's atmosphere as a conductor and launching kites enclosed with copper screens that were linked to the ground with copper wires. Congress then awarded Loomis a $50,000 research grant.
1947
This was a big year for what was to become the cell phone industry. In that year researchers first developed ideas as to the possibility of creating mobile phones that used "cells" that would identify a user in whatever specific region he or she was initiating the call from. However, since technology was fairly limited at the time, more development was required.
Later that same year, the FCC (or, the Federal Communications Commission) decided to open up separate radio frequencies to be available for mobile calling. However, the commission only allowed twenty-three cell phone conversations in a given calling area. Thus, "we can partially blame the FCC for the gap between the initial concept of cellular service and its availability to the public" .
1968
Companies such as AT&T and Bell Labs proposed new methods of incorporating the cellular phone system; in exchange, the FCC opened up more frequencies available to cell phone users. The companies' ideas were based on a concept of many small cellular towers that would handle phone calls for a certain region. When users moved from one region to another, service was transferred to a closer tower. With this development in place, AT&T and Bell Labs began testing the phones for public use.
1973
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 set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac. Dr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public.
1977
Cell phones go public. Public cell phone testing began. The state of Chicago was were the first trials began with 2,000 customers, and eventually other cell phone trials appeared in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area. Japan began testing cellular phone service in 1979. Several years later, the FCC authorized commercial cell phone use in the USA.
1983
The first American commercial analog cellular service was made available in Chicago by Ameritech.
1987
By this time, it was clear that something needed to be done about eventual overcrowding of cell phone frequencies. There were already more than a million cell phone subscribers. The FCC again came up with a solution: allow companies to research different technologies that could somehow free the cell phone airways. Companies then began developing new alternatives to the current system.
1988
This year changed many of the technologies that had become
typical in the past. The Cellular Technology Industry Association (CTIA)
was developed to lay down practical goals for cellular phone providers.
This included research for new applications for cell phone development.
A new standard was placed with the creation of the TDMA Interim Standard
54, in 1991 by the Telecommunications Industry Association.
In spite of the unbelievable demand, it took cellular phone service 37
years total to become commercially accessible in the US. According to
the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, today there are
more than 60 million customers with cellular phones, even though wireless
service was just invented nearly 50 years ago. The cellular business was
a $3 million market 25 years ago and has grown increasingly to close to
a $30 billion per year industry.
The first two, TDMA and CDMA, are both in widespread use in the U.S.A. today. GSM became the standard in Europe but has yet to be used as frequently as the TDMA and CDMA. However, this will almost definitely change in the future, as more companies embrace this newer technology.
Sources: Http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~cang/history.html
and http://www.cellphonecarriers.com/cell-phone-history.html and http://www.three-g.net/
About the Author
Sharon Broughton, owner of Simply Sharon Virtual Assistant, has been in business since 1997 but didn't know she was a VA until 2001 when she discovered Assistu and their amazing training course. She currently has a full practice in Sacramento, California, and refuses to go back to the corporate world. Sharon can be reached at www.SimplySharon.net.