What?! You don't have a mobile phone? - mobile phones part 1

Do you even realise how our world would look like if not for mobile phones? One thing is clear - without them communication would be much more difficult.

Let's have a closer look at how and when everything started.

April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper from Motorolla makes the first call on a hand-held mobile phone on to a rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, in front of reporters and passers-by on a New York City street.

This was the Motorolla DynaTAC - the first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.

Mobile phones came into public in 1979 with the launch of the first commercial and fully automated cellular network in Japan. Over the next few years analog cellular telephony known widely as 1G appeared in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, UK, Mexico, Canada and in the US. To cover huge areas cellular networks were intoduced. (for more info visit Wikipedia)

Year 1993, Finland. Digital cellular technology network (2G) is launched. On this date SMS text messaging was born. 2G allows to transfer voice, messages, data and money via payment systems eg. bus tickets, parking, fast-food restaurants. Be sure to check out mPay.

"The more you have, the more you want" so in 2001 3G was launched. It's offering simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink). In 3G technology video calls are possible - quite handy unless your mother-in-law is calling...

A device by itself won't let you call anyone without a proper battery. First models came with nickel metal-hydride power cells, then lithium ion and finally lithium-polymer are used today for their lower weight and possibility to make them in every shape.

For several years charging batteries was a serious problem since each manufacturer had its own and unique connector plug. Thankfully on 17 of February 2009, the GSM Association announced that they had agreed on a standard charger for mobile phones. The standard connector to be adopted by 17 manufacturers is to be the micro-usb connector. Yay for us!

Now.. we have a device and a charged battery. The problem is that we can make calls only to emergency numbers like 112. To call others we need a SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module). Basically it's microchip that stores the phone's configuration data, and information about the phone itself, such as which calling plan the subscriber is using.


Now.. I'm sure all of us are using mobile phones every day. Could you exist for let's say a week without a mobile? What would you feel? Joy, anger, frustration maybe alienation?
In other words does this simple device have a big impact on your life?


That's the end of part one, please be sure to comment on the questions asked above.

As a bonus below you can see a nice video on how handhelds changed over the years.