Wireless History
Here's my latest writing on mobile telephone history. 9,000 words, concentrating on developments after World War II. It's much easier to get into than this article if you're just interested in the cellular radio era. You can download it in .pdf format (internal link) or as a Word document (internal link). The .pdf is illustrated. Both versions have dozens of references. Comments are always welcome. Thanks, Tom
Digital wireless and cellular roots go back to the 1940s when commercial mobile telephony began. Compared with the furious pace of development today, it may seem odd that mobile wireless hasn't progressed further in the last 60 years. Where's my real time video watch phone? There were many reasons for this delay but the most important ones were technology, cautiousness, and federal regulation.
As the loading coil and vacuum tube made possible the early telephone network, the wireless revolution began only after low cost microprocessors and digital switching became available. The Bell System, producers of the finest landline telephone system in the world, moved hesitatingly and at times with disinterest toward wireless. Anything AT&T produced had to work reliably with the rest of their network and it had to make economic sense, something not possible for them with the few customers permitted by the limited frequencies available at the time. Frequency availability was in turn controlled by the Federal Communications Commission, whose regulations and unresponsiveness constituted the most significant factors hindering radio-telephone development, especially with cellular radio, delaying that technology in America by perhaps 10 years.
In Europe and Japan, though, where governments could regulate their state run telephone companies less, mobile wireless came no sooner, and in most cases later than the United States. Japanese manufacturers, although not first with a working cellular radio, did equip some of the first car mounted mobile telephone services, their technology equal to whatever America was producing. Their products enabled several first commercial cellular telephone systems, starting in Bahrain, Tokyo, Osaka, and Mexico City.