The First Cell Phone, Oh How Far We Have Come

Dyna-Tac



The first cell phone was invented by in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper. Dr. Martin Cooper worked for Motorola and worked on inventing portable products. Dr. Cooper and his team at Motorola made handheld radios for the Chicago police department. Then ten years later Dr. Cooper and his team made the first mobile phone, which was at the time called a portable phone which made more sense due to its enormous size compared to today's cell phones. There was also another company competing to make the first portable phone this other company was Bell labs. On April 3, 1973 Dr. Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on a Motorola Dyna-Tac near the Manhattan Hilton Hotel in New York City. The phone call was rumored to be made to his rival Joel Engel who was the leader of the Bell Labs research team. The first cell phone was bulky  it was 2.5 pound, 5 inches wide, 9 inches long and 1.75 inches thick. The phone also had to be charged 10 hours for only talking 35 minutes. The first cell phone and many models after that could not send text messages and didn't even have screens. The cell phone was invented in 1973 but cell phone's didn't become popular until the late 1990 when they weren't bulky and had screens and better battery life.

 

Dr. Martin Cooper (inventor of first cell phone) with first cell phone (Dyna-Tac)



The Dyna-Tac dwarfs modern day cell phones



Wireless Communications are the Future

Every year the number of cell phone users increases. At the end of 2008 there were approximately 4 billion mobile phones in use. Many developed countries more than 100% of their population have a cell phone this is because many people have more than one phone, often people have a work and a personal phone. Even in less developed countries cell phones use is increasing. For example in Africa the use of cell phones is increasing by 50% every year. In many places there was little or no communication now people have the ability to communicate with anyone, anytime and anywhere in the world. In a lot of developing countries the government is investing in wireless communications instead of wired communications. Countries are investing in wireless communications because it is a cheaper to build cell towers than to lay phone lines. A lot of the population of these countries is rural and would make it even more expensive to lay phone lines. Cell phones not to long use to be just a mobile phone without the ability to send text messages (SMS) or browse the internet. Now people can have access to the internet anywhere and anytime. The ability to access the internet anywhere and anytime has benefited business people so they can receive important emails anytime and anywhere. There is also now mobile internet sticks that work with laptops so you can use the internet almost anywhere.