News 1999
A Brief History of Mobile Phones
11/11/1999
- In 1835, American painter Samuel Morse made the first working electric telegraph using an electromagnet. By 1838 he had also developed the system of dots and dashes which enabled complex messages to be sent. By 1844 he had raised support from Congress and the first telegraph line was opened, from Baltimore to Washington. Morse sent the first message: 'What hath God wrought?'
- Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call on March 10, 1876, in Boston, through the Liquid Transmitter he had designed. He uttered the first words to be carried over a wire: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!"
- In 1906, a radio engineer named Lee de Forest transmitted a message to an experimental phone in a car idling on a New York street: "How do you like your first wireless ride? The fire department, steamships, and railways ought to adopt the same method of communication." Later he declared: "Hereafter, we hope it will be possible for businessmen, even while automobiling, to stay in constant touch."
- The first commercial telephone calls in the UK were made in 1912 when the General Post Office controlled the telephone networks. Call costs were as follows:
DAYTIME (7am - 7pm)
Up to 25 miles - 3d for 3 minutes
25-50 miles - 6d for 3 minutes
50-75 miles - 9d per 3 minutes
75-100 miles - 1shilling for 3 minutes
NIGHTIME (7pm - 7am)
25-50 miles - 6d for 3 minutes
50-75 miles - 6d " " "
75-100 miles - 6d " " "
Compared with its current value, the pound was worth roughly 40 times more in 1912 than it is today. Thus 1 shilling is equivalent to £2 today and 3d equivalent to 50p today.
- In 1946 a mobile telephone service (MTS) was introduced by AT&T in the United States. A mobile user who wished to place a call from a radiotelephone had to search manually for an unused 35-megahertz or 150-megahertz band before they could place a call. Only one person could speak at a time and the call direction was controlled by a push-to-talk button on the handset just like a walkie talkie.
- When mobiles were first launched, each country was limited to its own national area - they could call overseas landlines or mobiles but they would not work overseas. The first mobile phone weighed 76lbs (34kg).
- In May 1983 Licences were granted to Cellnet and Vodafone to provide national cellular radio networks in the UK.
- In the early 1980's the consultants McKinsey & Co were hired by AT&T to forecast the growth in the mobile market until the end of the millennium. They projected a world market of 900,000. Today, 900,000 handsets are sold every three days.
- 1985 saw the emergence of shoulder phones which operated with more than 20kg worth of batteries… which is why they were used mostly in cars.
- Vodafone and Cellnet opened for business in January 1985. Cellnet's charges were as follows -
-Lease of cellular phone - £164 per quarter (equivalent of approximately £262 at today's prices)
-Installation charge - £100 (approximately £160 at today's prices)
-Connection to Cellnet system - £60 (approximately £96 at today's prices)
-Call tariffs
8am - 8pm 25p per minute (approximately 40p at today's prices)
6am - 8am 15p per minute (approximately 24p at today's prices)
8pm - 10pm - 15p per minute
All other times - 8p per minute (approximately 12.5p at today's prices). - The first call ever placed on a commercial GSM (Global Standard for Mobile) phone was on 1 July 1991. Harri Holkeri, governor of the Bank of Finland, telephoned the mayor of Helsinki to talk about the price of Baltic herring.
- September 1993 saw the launch of One 2 One, the first GSM 1800 all-digital network in the world.
- April 1994 Hutchison Microtel announced the launch of its UK network, Orange.
- SMS - the Short Message Service - was launched in 1994 enabling short text messages to be exchanged between mobiles.
- In December 1998, Oftel Director General, David Edmonds, announced an intention to implement fully the recommendations made by the MMC following an investigation, made at the request of Oftel, into the price of calls made to mobile phones.
- In 1998 more mobile phones were sold world-wide than cars and PCs combined.
- From 1 January 1999, mobile phone customers were able to keep their old number when switching networks. The UK is the first country in the world to give customers this ability.
- April 1999 saw the emergence of the first mobiles able to send email and use the web.
- 22 September 1999, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee finds no health risk from mobile phones apart from use while driving, though urges manufacturers to continue research.
- 12 November 1999 Virgin Mobile launches
Notes: Virgin Mobile is a joint venture company owned 50:50 by Virgin Group and One 2 One.
For further information please contact:
Steven Day
0207 4844322 or 07931 777 777
Alison Bonny
0207 4844323 or 07941 204 418
