From Geoff Fors (internal link):

"This is a hard subject to define. The first all solid state mobile telephone from a 'mainstream' manufacturer was the UHF T-1414 'Mark 12' from Motorola, part of the MK UHF Improved Mobile Telephone System which was offered about 1969. GE phones had vacuum tubes in the transmitters through about 1972. RCA offered a 'RCC' or radio common carrier version of their 700 series solid state radios about 1971 but never made an IMTS or a Bell System radio for some reason."

"Briefcase telephones were all transistor but I don't recall them appearing until the mid 1970's. I also recall that there were a couple of tiny firms that made MTS (and later IMTS) phones which appear to have been solid state but they are so rare that I have never found any. One of these was 'Astronautics' which made a mobile phone with a modified Automatic Electric 'Starlite' princess-style control head. S/C/M (Smith Corona) was also involved in briefcase and mobile phone manufacture in the mid-late 1960's but I have never seen one nor even any literature on them despite valiant attempts over the years to locate one."

"Therefore it appears that the first all solid state mobile phone was Motorola's MK system in 1968/69. I suspect there were some mom and pop solid state attempts a few years previous which may be lost to history. I have a prototype Motorola MK T-1414 UHF phone which is from the old AT&T Labs in New Jersey. It is larger than the MJ phones of 1963! The basic radio package which made the MK phone was also employed as a standard 12 channel mobile radio and sold as the UHF "Motran" by Motorola. This got really confusing because there was also a higher powered non-duplex UHF mobile radio, a completely different product, which they also called the Motran."

Geoff

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Siemens has a nice selection of photographs showing how they test their mobiles: the dust test, the splash test, the vibration test, and so on. Click here to go to their photo gallery. (external link) This is the accompanying text of just one image:

"A mobile phone must be able to withstand a lot: during the temperature test (thermo-vibro chamber) performed in the Siemens test lab, each new device is exposed to electrodynamic fluctuations and temperature changes of between minus 25 degrees (-13F) and plus 85 degrees Celsius (+185) over three eight-hour periods. The temperature test is one of some 20 basic tests used to test the quality of all Siemens handsets."

The dust test in action

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Dave Mock (internal link) sends in these photos of early CDMA phones:

http://www.thequalcommequation.com/early_photos2.shtml (external link)

The photo at the top of his page is from Qualcomm, it is the first working, prototype CDMA phone. The date should be around November, 1989. Dave writes about Qualcomm in his latest book. These prototypes weren't meant to look sleek, just to work. See how similar the outward appearance is to the first GSM phone. This photo is from my site:

http://www.privateline.com/archive/ericssongsmprototype.jpg (internal link)

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I write about TradePub.com a few paragraphs below. They are a great resource for free industry publications. The telecom offerings are quite good, but now that I've explored more, it seems they offer thousands of magazines in scores of categories. What are you interested in? The link here goes to their telecom section (external link) but take some time to visit their site in depth. Free is good.

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The AP says Korea's second largest wireless carrier, Korean Telecom Freetel, will let dogs communicate with their master through cell phones. Who would have thunk? The AP relates:

"The users must first connect to Internet with their cell phones, and then register information of their dogs such as the breed and age. The service will then record the dog's bark."

"The owner will receive text messages telling them how their pet is feeling, such as 'I am happy' or "I am frustrated.'"

"The service, which will begin on Friday, will also translate basic messages into dog sounds. The service will cost about one dollar."

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Fascinating article from Agence France Presse:

Relentless rise of the mobile phone rings changes for world's poor

Thu Apr 21, 1:21 PM ET

With just four calls from a mobile phone, remote Bangladeshi farmer Mir Jahid Hussein can now ensure he gets the best price for his seasonal jute seeds -- something he could once only dream of.

As it is for tens of millions of poor rural-dwellers in developing countries from Bangladesh to Botswana, mobile phone technology is revolutionising Hussein's life for the better, enabling him to cut out cheating middlemen and deal directly with buyers from district markets. (continues here --> internal link)

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Visit TradePub.com today to sign up for industry publications. The link here goes to their telecom section (external link) but they offer magazines and whitepapers to interest almost anyone working in technology: the life sciences, construction, IT, even business, and on and on. I always enjoy getting magazines in hardcopy. The time to fill out their forms is a very small price to get good, timely industry writing.

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Both of these articles are external links. Read now before these URLS die.

The latest on the tower and cellular trade from Ken Schmidt (internal link):

http://www.steelintheair.com/CellTowerIndustryNews.htm

Very well done report on the fall of AT&T Wireless. By Dan Richman. Well worth reading:

http://www.businessjournalism.org/content/6477.cfm

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I'm enthusiastic about carriers offering street level coverage maps as I write about in yesterday's notes. But Mark van der Hoek (internal link), who's spent an entire career in cellular radio, disagrees with my point of view. He writes,

"The problem with offering such maps to the public is twofold:

1. Keeping them updated and accurate is a monumental task. I very much doubt that T-Mobile's maps are accurate everywhere, and the real world experience will change frequently. The truth is, they probably decided to do this, made a Hurculean effort, and the accuracy will go downhill from here.

2. One word: Expectations. The minute you print a map that looks like it is detailed, people assume it is accurate. If you are presenting a map that "a reasonable person would believe to be accurate", you are liable if it is not. So says at least one court case in California, and it's not at all hard to follow the reasoning. If you give people a PICTURE, it doesn't matter how many disclaimers appear in print along with the picture -- the only message that gets through to the majority of people is the picture."

"The wireless industry has painted itself into a corner with over-selling the quality of their service. They've done it with voice and we're already seeing the same problem crop up with E911. (Look for some major lawsuits over this in the next 5 years. It's going to be ugly.) These kind of maps are more of the same. If you tell people they have coverage, they will expect it to be there, every time and all the time, disclaimers notwithstanding."

"I really think it is to the industry's AND the public's advantage to live in the real world, where radio service is flaky. Given human nature, that means that maps cannot be made reasonably detailed and accurate. The minute you do that, most people will assume a level of accuracy that the carrier was not intending to convey."

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Dave Mock (internal link) points out T-Mobile offers street level coverage maps of their territory. Pretty cool. Put in the address you want to see if it's covered. Well worth some time on their site, many say that street maps like this give customers the best way to choose a carrier. More on this later. For now, click on the link below to go to T-Mobile. (By the way, I have no relation with this company):

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/ (external link)

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Automating the operator position was a decades long process for most telephone companies. Ronald Briggs comments and sends photographs of one of the more obscure, semi-automatic systems that came before fully automated consoles (internal link). Thanks to Ron and J.R. Snyder Jr..

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