Fascinating facts about the
invention of the Mobile Phone by Joel Engel
and Richard Frenkiel in 1983 |
MOBILE TELEPHONE |
AT A GLANCE:
Today's communications industry would not be what it is without the
contributions made by Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel. The big
breakthrough came when AT&T Labs researchers
Frenkiel and Engel divided wireless communications into a series of cells,
then automatically switched callers as they moved so that each cell
could be reused. This led to the development of cellular phones and made today’s mobile
communications possible. |
THE
STORY
RELATED INFO
BOOKS
VIDEOS
WEB SITES
WHERE TO FIND
QUOTATIONS
HOW IT WORKS |
|
Invention: |
mobile
telephone |
|
|
Function: |
noun /
mo·bile tele·phone |
|
Definition: |
A mobile
radiotelephone, often in an automobile, that uses a network of
short-range transmitters located in overlapping cells throughout a
region, with a central station making connections to regular
telephone lines. Also called cellular telephone |
|
| Inventor: |
Joel Engel and
Richard Frenkiel |
|
|
Criteria: |
First practical
cellular telephone system. |
| Birth: |
Richard Frenkiel, March
4, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York
Joel Engel, February 4, 1936 in New York City |
|
Nationality: |
American |
|
Milestones:
1921 The Detroit Police
Department, began experimentation with one-way vehicular mobile service.
1928 Detroit Police commenced regular one-way radio communication with
all its patrol cars.
1933 Bayonne, NJ Police Department initiated regular two-way
communications with its patrol cars
1936 Alton Dickieson, H.I. Romnes and D. Mitchell begin design of AT&T's
mobile phone system
1940 Connecticut State Police began statewide two-way, on the frequency
modulated (FM)
1941 FM mobile radio became standard throughout the country following
the success in Connecticut
1946 A driver in St. Louis, Mo., placed a phone call,it was the first
AT&T mobile telephone call.
1948 wireless telephone service was available in almost 100 cities
and highway corridors.
1947 cellular telephone service conceived by D.H. Ring at Bell Labs, but
the technology didn't exist
1971 Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel of
AT&T applied computers and electronics to make it work.
1973 Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first cellphone call to his
rival Joe Engel of AT&T Bell Labs
1978 AT&T conducted FCC-authorized field trials in Chicago and Newark,
N.J.
1979 the first cellular network was launched in Japan.
1982 FCC granted commercial licenses to an AT&T subsidiary, Advanced
Mobile Phone Service
1983 AMPS was then divided among the local companies as part of the
planning for divestiture
1983 Illinois Bell opened the first commercial cellular system in
October
CAPs: Joel Engel, Richard Frenkiel, Alton Dickieson, H.I. Romnes, D. Mitchell, D.H. Ring,
William (Bill) C. Jakes,
Martin Cooper, ARY, mobile phone, mobile telephone, cell phone, cellular
phone, cellphone, wireless
phone, SIP, history, biography, inventor, invention. |
|
The Story:
Today's communications industry would not be what it is without the
contributions made by Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel. The big
breakthrough came when AT&T Labs researchers
Frenkiel and Engel divided wireless communications into a series of cells, then automatically switched callers as they moved so that each cell could be
reused. This led to the development of cellular phones and made today’s mobile
communications possible.
On June 17, 1946 a
driver in St. Louis, Missouri., pulled out a handset from under his car's
dashboard, placed a phone call and made history. It was the first mobile
telephone call.
A team including Alton Dickieson, H.I. Romnesand D. Mitchell
from Bell Labs, worked more than a decade to achieve this feat. By
1948, wireless telephone service was available in almost 100 cities and
highway corridors. Customers included utilities, truck fleet operators and
reporters. However, with only 5,000 customers making 30,000 weekly calls,
the service was far from commonplace.
That "primitive" wireless network could not handle large call volumes. A
single transmitter on a central tower provided a handful of channels for an
entire metropolitan area. Between one and eight receiver towers handled the
call return signals. At most, three subscribers could make calls at one time
in any city. It was, in effect, a massive party line, where subscribers
would have to listen first for someone else on the line before making a
call.
Expensive and far from "mobile", the service cost $15 per month, plus 30 to
40 cents per local call, and the equipment weighed 80 pounds. Just as they
would use a CB microphone, users depressed a button on the handset to talk
and released it to listen.
Improved technology after 1965 brought a few more channels, customer dialing
and eliminated the cumbersome handset. But capacity remained so limited that
Bell System officials rationed the service to 40,000 subscribers guided by
agreements with state regulatory agencies. For example, 2,000 subscribers in
New York City shared just 12 channels, and typically waited 30 minutes to
place a call. It was wireless, but with "strings" attached.
Something better — cellular telephone service — had been conceived in 1947
by D.H. Ring at Bell Labs, but the idea was not ready for prime time. The
system comprised multiple low-power transmitters spread throughout a city in
a hexagonal grid, with automatic call handoff from one hexagon to another
and reuse of frequencies within a city. The technology to implement it
didn't exist, and the frequencies needed were not available. The cellular
concept lay barron until the 1960s, when Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel of
Bell Labs applied computers and electronics to make it work.
AT&T turned their work into a proposal to the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in December 1971. After years of hearings, the FCC approved
the overall concept, but licensed two competing systems in each city.
Modern mobile telephony took a giant leap forward on April 3, 1973,
when Motorola employee Martin Cooper placed a call to rival AT&T's Bell Labs
while walking the streets of New York City talking on the first mobile
telephone, a Motorola DynaTAC.
In 1978, AT&T conducted FCC-authorized field trials in Chicago and Newark,
N.J. Four years later, the FCC granted commercial licenses to an AT&T
subsidiary, Advanced Mobile Phone Service Inc. (AMPS). AMPS was then divided
among the local companies as part of the planning for divestiture. Illinois
Bell opened the first commercial cellular system in October 1983. For their pioneering work in cellular telephony, AT&T Labs researchers Richard
Frenkiel and Joel Engel earned the National Medal of Technology. Cellular telephony has
spawned a Multi-billion dollar industry and has freed tens of millions of people, both at
home and at work, to communicate anywhere, any time. |
TO
LEARN MORE
RELATED INFORMATION:
Invention of the Telephone from The Great Idea Finder
Communication History
from The Great Idea Finder
ON THE BOOKSHELF:
Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone
by Jon Agar / Paperback: 192 pages / Publisher: Totem Books (February 25,
2005)
Until not very long ago the mobile phone was expensive and the preserve of a
rich few. Today the cellphone is everywhere--so common it goes unnoticed.
Jon Agar tells the fascinating story behind the rise and rise of this
incredible little device.
The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society
by Rich Ling / Paperback: 244 pages / Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 3rd
edition (May 18, 2004)
This book, based on world-wide research involving tens of thousands of
interviews and contextual observations, looks into the impact of the phone
on our daily lives. The mobile phone has fundamentally affected our
accessibility, safety and security, coordination of social and business
activities, and use of public places.
Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has
Transformed Everything!
by Paul Levinson / Hardcover: 240 pages / Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
(April 17, 2004)
Cellphone explores the history of mobility in media--from books to
cameras to transistor radios to laptops--and examines the unique impact of a
device that sits in a pocket or palm, and lets us converse by voice or text.
Invention of the Telephone
ON THE SCREEN:
The Telephone
DVD / 1 Volume Set / 50 Minutes / History Channel / Less than $25.00
/ Also VHS
Undeniably essential to modern life, the telephone is the most
important, influential, and effective communication tool ever developed.
Exploring how one man's speaking device has grown into the technological
web that links humankind, this thrilling program also revisits the race
between Bell and rival Elisha Gray—who was building a similar design but
ultimately filed the history-changing patent just two hours after Bell.
ON THE WEB:
AT&T
Bell Laboratories
History of mobile communications, including cellular phones. Working with a
team of nearly 200 Bell Lab engineers, Engel and Frenkiel developed a
concept that divided cities up into small coverage areas called cells.
(URL: www.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/83celltech.html)
Mobile Communications History
Seems to have been first "verbalized" by D. H. Ring (AT&T Bell Laboratories)
in 1947. The advent of the cellular concept was a crucial contribution in
the development of mobile communication.
(URL: people.deas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/nu_lectures/lecture7/cellular/cell_hist.html)
Cellular Telephone Basics
Cellular radio provides mobile telephone service by employing a network of
cell sites distributed over a wide area. A cell site contains a radio
transceiver and a base station controller which manages, sends, and receives
traffic from the mobiles in its geographical area to a cellular telephone
switch.
(URL: www.privateline.com/Cellbasics/Cellbasics.html)
First Mobile Phone Equipment.
The predecessor of all mobile phones, the Motorola DynaTAC. We should thank
Martin Cooper, Paul Galvin and Motorola that we have such mobile phones, as
we know them today.
(URL: www.zfone.com/articles/a_id/36/the-first-mobile-phone)
Martin Cooper
Martin Cooper was instrumental in
conducting the first cellular trials in New York City in April 1973 and
placed the first call from a Manhattan base station to rivals in Bell Labs
in New Jersey, just to chide them about Motorola's lead. Article by by
Loring Wirbel
for
eeTimes.
(URL:
www.eetimes.com/special/special_issues/millennium/milestones/cooper.html)
Invention
Dimension - Inventor of the Week
Celebrates inventor/innovator role models through outreach activities and annual
awards to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
(URL:
web.mit.edu/invent/iow/freneng.html)
Telecom & Wireless Publications
Free publications about telecommunications technology and management.
(URL: www.tradepub.com/_brands/www/cat/Tele.cat.html)
Joel S. Engel Biography
Joel Engel was born on February 4, 1936 in New York City. He received his
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the City College of New
York in 1957. Joel's professional career began at the MIT Instrumentation
Laboratory, where he worked on inertial guidance and stabilization systems.
(URL: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/legacies/engel.html)
Richard H. Frenkiel Biography
Richard (Dick) Frenkiel was born on March 4, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. He
attended Tufts University and Rutgers University, emerging with an aura of
competence in mechanical engineering.
(URL: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/legacies/frenkiel.html)
William Jakes Biography
William (Bill) C. Jakes, Jr. was born on May 15, 1922 in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. His lifelong fascination with radio started as a Cub Scout when
he built a crystal set to fulfill one of the advancement requirements.
(URL: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/legacies/jakes.html)
WHERE TO FIND:
Motorola RAZR V3
Phone
Electronics at Amazon / by Motorola & Cingular /
ASIN: B0006I2E1O / Less than
?
The Moto Razr V3 is expertly crafted to deliver exceptional performance.
Inside the ultra-thin design are advanced features like MPEG4 video
playback, Bluetooth® wireless technology, a digital camera and more. And
with the precision-cut keypad, minimalist styling and metal finish, the V3
looks just as beautiful as it performs.
WORDS OF WISDOM:
"Can you hear me now?" - Anonymous TV ad
HOW IT WORKS:
How
Cell Phones Work
A good way to understand the sophistication of a
cell phone is to compare it to a CB radio or a walkie-talkie. By
Marshall Brain and Jeff Tyson at How Stuff Works. POP-UP ADS.
|
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trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. |
| Reference
Sources in BOLD Type. |
This
page revised July 26, 2006. |
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