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We Could Have Had Cellphones Four Decades Earlier (reason.com)
_Sharp'r_ writes: Professor Thomas Hazlett of Clemson University analyzed the history of wireless spectrum and concluded the technology was known and available for cellphones in the 40s, but there was no spectrum available. Based on assumptions cellphones would always be luxury goods without mass appeal, significant spectrum for divisible cellular networks wasn't legally usable until the early 80s. Instead, the unused spectrum was reserved for the future expansion of broadcast TV to channels 70-83. Here's an excerpt from the report: "When AT&T wanted to start developing cellular in 1947, the FCC rejected the idea, believing that spectrum could be best used by other services that were not 'in the nature of convenience or luxury.' This view -- that this would be a niche service for a tiny user base -- persisted well into the 1980s. 'Land mobile,' the generic category that covered cellular, was far down on the FCC's list of priorities. In 1949, it was assigned just 4.7 percent of the spectrum in the relevant range. Broadcast TV was allotted 59.2 percent, and government uses got one-quarter."
Without modern miniaturization, spread-spectrum, and modern data compression, it would have been for an elite. We are lucky it wasn't rolled out in the 40's because it would have been a nickel-plated vacuum tube thing, and allocated to high-payers before the technology to allocate it widely existed.
Many kinds of technology were involved into making the cell phone - from hardware to software - and most were simply not matured enough during the 1940's
The were called "radio phones/car phones". They were in use since the late 1940's and were quite popular in the 60s, 70s, and through the early 80s and often found in Limousines etc, before cell phones.
This author does not really know what they are talking about.
-- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
...and so were cellular telephones when they first came to market. All that you needed was a scanner.
It was so easy to listen to any cell phone conversation, that website operators even setup websites allowing anyone to listen to live cell phone conversation streams in various cities.
https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-actions-and-decisions/investigations/investigations-into-businesses/incidents/2001/cf-dc_010917/
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
We could all be using satellite phones now...but they're not commercially viable...capability does not equal widely applicable. Especially technological capacity in its infancy. We could theoretically all be travelling in electromagnetic floating cars...but we're not...it's technically feasible...but not practical or commercially viable at this point in time...so...even though Tesla demonstrated wireless electricity in the 1800's...we're just now coming into induction charging as a regular thing. We're still not powering every device in our house through one central electrical generator...it's all being worked on though folks...you just can't get it cheap now...
Particularly since cellphones as they actually were/are, meaning phones that work with individuals radio "cells" and move between them need computers to work. They don't have to be amazing computers, but they need some computer logic to handle dealing with dynamic frequency assignment and handoff between towers.
That one piece of a technology, even an important piece, existed at a given time doesn't mean the tech could happen. Many devices require a confluence of a number of technologies before they can happen.
Smartphones are an example. They aren't particularly a novel idea, we've seen shit like them in sci fi for a long time. However to actually be a thing on the market we needed a lot of shit:
--Processors had to get fast enough at a small enough size
--Displays had to get small, light, and low energy
--Batteries had to get sufficient energy density
--Silicon based storage had to evolve to usable levels
--We needed wireless digital communication
--We needed the Internet (or something like it to have something worth connection to)
Without any one of those things, you don't have a workable smartphone. That they started to rise to prominence when they did isn't some amazing stroke of genius or luck, it was because the various technologies had reached the needed point.
Cell phones used analog transmissions as late as 2008. How do I know this? Because that was when my cell provider bought me a new phone so they could retire all their analog equipment. I had a "dual mode" phone then that could do digital and analog. The FCC would not allow the cell providers to get rid of their analog equipment until enough of their subscribers had digital phones. I hung on to that phone so long that not only did I get a free phone but I was paid $50 to take the free phone.
Another thing that prompted the switch were instances of high up government officials having their phone calls listened to by people with scanners.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Yeah, right. With valves. You'd need some kind of cart just for the batteries.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The article tells us that the first "cellular" call (the author's opinion seems to be that this was the only contributory technology required to make "cellphones" as we know them today) was made in 1973. So 4 decades earlier would have meant starting celular technology in the early 1930's.
But to claim we could have had "cellphones" at any particular point in time implies all the infrastructure that goes with them: small size, portability, low cost, cell-towers, call routing computers, high capacity batteries. Simply saying that technical feasibility is the same as being able to develop a commercial product is naive.
The ancient Babylonians used oil, does that mean thay should have developed the internal combustion engine?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons