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Our Reliance on Cellphones Began 35 Years Ago This Week (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on from the this-week-in-history dept.

With 95% of Americans owning a cellphone, it can feel like we've been calling, texting, and tweeting on the go forever. But the infrastructure supporting our cellphones has actually not been around that long. From a report: While we're now on 4G networks, it was only 35 years ago this week that Ameritech (now part of AT&T) launched 1G, or the first commercial cell phone network. That network, called the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), went online on October 13, 1983, allowing people in the Chicago area to make and receive mobile calls for the first time. Ameritech president Bob Barnett, who made the first call, decided to make the historic moment count by ringing Alexander Graham Bell's grandson. A little more than a year later, UK's Vodafone hosted its first commercial call on New Year's Day. Israel's Pelephone followed suit in 1986, followed by Australia in 1987.

Cellphone technology had been around for quite a while before that. AMPS was in development for around 15 years, and engineers made the first mobile call on a prototype network a decade before the first commercial network call. It took that long to troubleshoot the various hardware, software, and radio frequency issues associated with setting up a fully functional commercial network.

14 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. General affordability by DaMattster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It did not become generally affordable to the masses until around early 2009 when we saw the beginnings of unlimited cell usage at a fixed price point courtesy of Boost Mobile. In January of 2009, Boost introduced an unlimited phone plan for 50.00 and it touched off a revolution. Before that time, plans were metered and expensive.

    1. Re:General affordability by Toth · · Score: 3, Informative

      I had a "cellphone" provided by my employer 30 ago. It was expensive and huge. "a dollar a holler" It was only provided for managers and some territory supervisors.
      Now all our managers and field employees have them. We have custom applications so all technicians can see their assigned calls and update them live.

    2. Re:General affordability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unlimited plans existed years before that, just not in the US.

    3. Re:General affordability by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      The old Crackberry (the 8100 series) was in heavy use in 2006 and 2007, it seemed that everyone with a corporate phone had either a Windows CE phone or a Crackberry. Probably 20+ million of those (and I'd say they classify as smartphones, even if the UI is different) in use before the iPhone release.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:General affordability by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      Nah. I had a personal cell phone in 1997. It was affordable.

      It wasn't a smartphone. And it didn't do text.

      And it was almost as big as a frigging brick, and the huge battery only lasted (on standby) about 6 hours. So if you wanted to use it all business day you needed an extra battery.

      But only 2 years later I got a StarTac, which was tiny, and with the optional larger battery (still tiny) lasted more than a day. And the plan was still affordable.

    5. Re:General affordability by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      I had an unlimited plan before that IN THE US.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Re:Nordic Mobile Telephone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ARP, 1971 in Finland, "0G"

  3. Next story by Kohath · · Score: 2

    Our reliance on clean water started ...
    Our reliance on indoor plumbing started ...

    Advances that lead to better lives for people are awesome. Reliance on them is a good thing.

    1. Re:Next story by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      Kids staying indoors and developing mental health disorders from social networking is not awesome.

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      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. Canada? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

    TFA mentions 1G cellular service beginning in the USA (1983), UK (1984), Israel (1986) and Australia (1987.)

    No mention of Canada, where cellular service went live on Canada Day (July 1) 1985.

    I suspect there are other omissions.

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    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    1. Re:Canada? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I suspect there are other omissions.

      By my count I would suspect 190 other omissions.

  5. Statistics... by SeaFox · · Score: 2

    With 95% of Americans owning a cellphone...

    Source for that? I'm kinda doubting it's that high given general age distribution.

  6. old guy here by speedlaw · · Score: 2

    The cell phone showed up when I got a real job...actually when I got my second real job. You could go to lunch. People took messages and you could call them back with no hurt feelings and having digested lunch. You could go on vacation. Calls on vacation were tough to get, especially at the beach or in another country. You could go to sleep. No one would send you a message or call you after hours in 99% of situations. I still get crap from family and friends if I leave my phone in another room or the car. Yes, there are benefits, but the absolute loss of alone time or solitude isn't worth it. Also like most advances, the only benefit was had before the entire US moron population got on the web and then the trash got Samsung smartphones.....

  7. NMT launched 1 October 1981 by hukr · · Score: 2

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... NMT (Nordisk MobilTelefoni or Nordiska MobilTelefoni-gruppen, Nordic Mobile Telephony in English) is the first fully automatic cellular phone system. It was specified by Nordic telecommunications administrations (PTTs) and opened for service on 1 October 1981 as a response to the increasing congestion and heavy requirements of the manual mobile phone networks: ARP (150 MHz) in Finland, MTD (450 MHz) in Sweden and Denmark, and OLT in Norway.