History of Mobile Phones

This history focuses on communication devices which connect wirelessly to the public switched telephone network. Thetransmission of speech by radio has a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony. The first mobile telephones were barely portable compared to today's compact hand-held devices. Along with the process of developing more portable technology, drastic changes have taken place in the networking of wireless communication and the prevalence of its use.

Handheld mobile phone

Prior to 1973, mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles. Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On 3 April 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 1.1 kg and measured 23 cm long, 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge.

John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products and Cooper's boss in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone.

Martin Cooper (inventor)

Martin "Marty" Cooper (born December 26, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American pioneer and visionary in the wireless communications industry. With eleven patents in the field, he is recognized as an innovator in radio spectrum management.

While at Motorola in the 1970s, Cooper conceived the first handheld mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) and led the team that developed it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered the "father of the cell phone"  and is also cited as the first person in history to make a handheld cellular phone call in public.

Cooper is co-founder of numerous successful communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris; also known as the "first lady of wireless." He is currently co-founder and Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the Federal Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce.