The world's first mobile phone

Mobile communication, functioning today around the world, is traditionally considered a relatively new invention. However, the first concepts of organizing the infrastructure of mobile communications appeared in the early 20th century. On the question, in which country the first mobile phones appeared and when, it is difficult to answer unequivocally. But if you try to do this - what facts about the development of telephone communication with the use of radio equipment should be studied first of all? Based on what criteria should one or another device be attributed to mobile phones?

History of mobile phones: basic facts

To answer the question - who invented the first mobile phone in the world, we can, first of all, get acquainted with the history of creating the appropriate communication devices.

Concepts and prototypes of communication devices, from a functional point of view, close to mobile phones, began to be discussed in various communities (scientific, engineering) as early as the beginning of the 20th century. But the cell phone itself as a subscriber means of communication suggested in the late 70s to develop a laboratory of Bell Laboratories, which belonged to one of the largest American corporations - AT & T. Among the first states to successfully implement commercial mobile communication systems is Finland. Mobile communication systems were also actively developing in the USSR.

But which state outstripped the rest in the introduction of mobile phones?

It will be useful to dwell in more detail on Soviet inventions - familiarization with the facts about them will help us understand when the first mobile phone appeared in the world and in which country.

Creating a mobile phone: the Soviet experience

During the Great Patriotic War, the idea of creating a special device, a monophone, was proposed by the Soviet scientist Georgy Ilich Babat. This device was supposed to be a portable phone, functioning in an automatic mode. It was assumed that it will operate in the range 1-2 GHz. A fundamental feature of the apparatus proposed by GI. Babat, was to ensure voice transmission through a branched network of special waveguides.

In 1946, G. Shapiro and I. Zakharchenko proposed to organize a radiotelephone system, in which devices for receiving and transmitting voice should be placed in cars. In accordance with this concept, the basis of the mobile communication infrastructure should have been existing city stations, supplemented by special radio equipment. As a subscriber identifier, it was intended to use special callsigns.

In April 1957, the Soviet engineer Leonid Ivanovich Kupriyanovich created a prototype of a communication device - the radiotelephone LK-1. This device had a range of about 30 km and had a significant weight - about 3 kg. He could provide communication through interaction with a special PBX, which could be connected to the city telephone lines. Subsequently, the phone was improved. Is not it. Kupriyanovich significantly reduced the weight and dimensions of the device. In the updated version, the size of the device was approximately equal to the value of 2 cigarette boxes stacked on top of each other. The weight of the radiotelephone was about 500 grams together with the battery. It was calculated that the Soviet mobile phone will find wide application in the national economy, in everyday life and will become the subject of personal use of citizens.

Radiotelephone LI Kupriyanovich allowed not only to make calls, but also to accept them - provided that he assigned a personal number, and also to use the infrastructure that allows to transmit signals from automatic telephone exchanges to automatic telephone stations, and from them - to subscriber devices.

Research in the field of mobile communication was also carried out in other socialist countries. For example, in 1959 the Bulgarian scientist Hristo Bachvarov developed a mobile device similar to the basic principle with the phone LI. Kupriyanovich, and patented it.

Is it possible to say that the world's first mobile phone was invented, therefore, in the USSR or in other socialist countries?

Criteria for assigning devices to mobile phones

First of all, it is necessary to determine what to consider, in fact, a mobile phone. In accordance with a common definition, this should be considered a device that:

- compact (a person can carry it with him);

- works with the use of radio communication channels;

- allows one subscriber to call another using a unique number;

- in a certain way integrated with wired telephone networks;

- publicly available (connectivity does not require permission from any competent authority and is limited to the financial and infrastructure resources of subscribers).

From this point of view, a full-fledged mobile phone in the Soviet Union still was not invented. But, of course, the above criteria for determining a mobile phone can not be considered universal. And if one of them is removed, in particular, the accessibility and compactness, then the rest of the Soviet system "Altai" may well correspond. Let's consider its features in more detail.

Soviet experience in the development of mobile communications: the Altai system

When studying the question of which is the very first mobile phone in the world, it is useful to get acquainted with the basic facts about the appropriate communication system. At the devices connected to it, basically, all signs of a mobile phone, except for general accessibility were available. This system, thus:

- functioned on the principle of radio communication ;

- allowed one caller to call others by numbers;

- was integrated in a certain way with urban networks.

But it was not available to the public: subscriber lists were approved at the departmental level. The "Altai" system was launched in the 60s in Moscow, and in the 70s it was deployed in more than 100 cities of the USSR. Actively used during the 1980 Olympics.

There were plans in the USSR to create a mobile communication system, to which everyone could connect. But in connection with the economic and political complexities of the mid-to-late 80's work on the development of this concept were curtailed.

In post-Soviet Russia western standards of cellular communication were introduced. By that time, they had already for a long time provided communications between devices, which could be called full-fledged mobile phones. We will study how the corresponding standards developed in the West. This, again, will help us to answer the question, where and when the world's first mobile phone appeared.

History of mobile communication in the US

As we noted at the beginning of the article, the prototypes of mobile phones in the West began to appear in the early 20th century. In the 30's and 40's, real development began to be introduced. In 1933, between the vehicles of the New York police, communications could be made using half-duplex radio transmitters. In 1946, in Missouri , a mobile network was deployed, in which private subscribers could communicate with each other using radio equipment with the mediation of the operator. In 1948, the state of Indiana was launched infrastructure, allowing one subscriber to call another already in automatic mode.

Can we say that it was in the United States that the first mobile phone in the world was invented? If we consider the criteria for assigning a radiotelephone to a device of the appropriate type, yes, we can say so, but with reference to later American developments. The fact is that the principles of its operation of the American cellular networks of the 1940s were very far from those that characterize modern mobile networks.

Systems such as those deployed in the states of Missouri and Indiana in the 1940s had significant limitations on frequencies and channels. This did not allow a large number of subscribers to be connected to mobile networks simultaneously. The solution to this problem was proposed by Bell's specialist D. Ring, who proposed to divide the area of radio signal propagation into cells or cells that would be formed by special base stations operating at different frequencies. This principle, in general, is realized by modern cellular operators. In practice, the concept of D. Ring was implemented in practice in 1969.

History of mobile communications in Europe and Japan

In Western Europe, the first telephone systems using radio equipment were tested in 1951. In the 60s, work in this direction was actively conducted in Japan. It is noteworthy that Japanese developers have determined that the optimal frequency for the deployment of mobile communication infrastructure is 400 and 900 MHz. Today, these frequencies are among the main ones that are used by cellular operators.

Finland has become one of the most advanced countries in terms of introducing developments in the field of organizing the functioning of a full-fledged cellular network. In 1971, the Finns began to deploy a commercial cellular network, whose coverage area by 1978 reached the size of the whole country. Does this mean that the very first mobile phone in the world, functioning according to modern principles, appeared in Finland? There are certain arguments in favor of this thesis: in particular, the fact of deploying the relevant infrastructure by Finnish telecommunications corporations on a country scale has been established. But in accordance with the traditional point of view, such a device has appeared in the USA. The main role in this, again, if we consider a popular version, was played by Motorola.

Cellular communication concepts from Motorola

In the early 70-ies in the United States was very tough competition between service providers and equipment in the promising market segment - in the field of cellular communications. The main competitors here were the AT & T and Motorola corporations. At the same time, the first company focused on the deployment of automotive communication systems - by the way, like telecommunications corporations in Finland, the second - on the introduction of compact devices that any subscriber could carry with him.

The second concept won, and on its basis, Motorola began to deploy, in fact, a full-fledged modern cellular network using compact devices. The world's first mobile phone within the framework of the Motorola infrastructure, again, in accordance with the traditional approach, was used as a subscriber device In 1973. After 10 years in the United States was launched a full-fledged commercial network, which could connect ordinary Americans.

Consider what was the world's first mobile phone, invented, according to a popular point of view, by the engineers of the US company Motorola.

First Cell Phone: Features

It's about the Motorola DynaTAC device. He weighed about 1.15 kg. Its size was 22.5 x 12.5 x 3.75 cm. It contained the number keys for dialing a number, as well as two special buttons for sending a call, as well as stopping the conversation. The device had a battery, due to which it could function in the call waiting mode for about 8 hours, and in talk mode - about 1 hour. Charge the battery of the first cell phone needed more than 10 hours.

первый в мире мобильный телефон? What does the world's first mobile phone look like ? The photo of the device is below.

Subsequently, Motorola released a number of upgraded versions of the device. If we talk about the commercial network of Motorola - the first mobile phone in the world was made for the corresponding infrastructure in 1983.

It's about the device Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. Weighed this device about 800 grams, its dimensions were comparable to the first version of the device. It is noteworthy that 30 subscriber numbers could be stored in his memory.

Who invented the first mobile phone?

So, let's try to answer our main question - who invented the world's first mobile phone. The history of the development of telephone communications using radio equipment suggests that the very first device that fully complied with the criteria for assigning to mobile phones, relevant today, was invented by Motorola in the US and shown to the world in 1973.

However, it would be wrong to say that this corporation introduced a fundamentally new development. Mobile phones - in the sense that they were radio equipment and provided communication between subscribers on a unique number - at that time they were used in the USSR, Europe, Japan. If we talk about when the world's first mobile phone was commercialized - the company that developed it, launched the corresponding business in 1983, later than, in particular, similar projects were implemented in Finland.

Thus, Motorola rightfully consider the first, which offered a mobile phone in the modern sense - in particular, functioning on the principle of distribution of base stations for cells, as well as having a compact format. Thus, if we talk about where the world's first mobile phone was invented, in which country - as a portable, compact device that is part of the cellular communication infrastructure, it would be legitimate to determine that the US became the given state.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the Soviet system "Altai" functioned quite successfully and without introducing technologies of the American model. Thus, engineers from the USSR have in principle proved the possibility of deploying mobile communication infrastructure in national, in fact, scale, without using the principles of base station allocation by cell.

It is possible that without the economic and political problems of the 1980s, the USSR would introduce its own mobile networks, operating on the basis of concepts alternative to American ones, and they would work no worse. However, the fact is that today in Russia the standards of cellular communication developed in the West, which offered and commercialized the first mobile phones, are used in the world.

It should be noted that the "Altai" system actually worked until 2011. Thus, the Soviet engineering achievements for a long time remained relevant, and this may indicate that they may, with the necessary refinement, could constitute a worthy competition to foreign concepts of building the infrastructure of cellular communications.

Summary

So who invented the world's first mobile phone? It is difficult to answer this question briefly. If a mobile phone is understood as a compact subscriber radio equipment integrated with city networks, functioning on a cellular basis and available to all comers, then probably this infrastructure was first introduced by the US company Motorola.

сотовых сетях — то таковые, вероятно, в масштабе всего государства были внедрены в Финляндии, однако с применением устройств, ориентированных на размещение в автомобилях. If we talk about the first commercial cellular networks - then those, probably on a national scale, were introduced in Finland, but with the use of devices aimed at placing in cars. Non-commercial closed mobile networks were also successfully deployed, in fact, on a national scale, in the USSR.