Evolution of the Mobile Phone

1973

First Call

Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on April 3, 1973. He called his competitor, Dr. Joel S. Engel, who was head of Bell Labs to gloat at having beat them. Cooper said, “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone.”

1979

1 GENERATION (1G) ANALOG CELLULAR

1G refers to the first generation of wireless telephone technology. These analog telecommunications standards were first launched commercially in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1979.

1983

Motorola Dyna TAC 8000X

Martin Cooper made the first analogue mobile phone call using a heavy Motorola Dyna TAC 8000X prototype. Cooper is the first inventor named on ‘Radio telephone Ststm’ filed on October 17, 1973 with the US Patent Office. The phone was commercially produced in 1983.

1989

NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES

Mobile phones were large in the past partly due to the heavy and large nickel-cadmium battery in them. These batteries produce heat during use and have to be emptied fully before recharging.

1991

MicroTAC 9800X

Being able to fit into a shirt pocket, this is the smallest and lightest phone available at the time. It featured an eight-character dot-matrix red LED display and a “flip design” that was novel.

2 GENERATION (2G) DIGITAL CELLULAR

2G is short for second-generation cellular technology. 2G cellular networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard