A mobile

telephone or cellular telephone (commonly

"mobile phone" or "cell phone") is a long-range,
portable electronic device used for mobile
communication. In addition to the standard voice
function of a telephone, current mobile phones can
support many additional services such as SMS for
text messaging, email, packet switching for access
to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving
photos and video. Most current mobile phones
connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell
sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public
switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception
is satellite phones).
There is one U.S. Patent Number 887357 for a
wireless telephone, issued 1908 to Nathan B.
Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this to
"cave radio" phones and not directly to cellular
telephony as we know it today(Source). However,
the introduction of cells for mobile phone base
stations, invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at
AT&T, was further developed by Bell Labs during
the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied
history going back to Reginald Fessenden's
invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio
telephony, through the Second World War with
military use of radio telephony links and civil
services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular
radio devices have been available since 1983. Due
to their low establishment costs and rapid
deployment, mobile phone networks have since
spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping
the growth of fixed telephony.
In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile
telephones was introduced. 0G mobile telephones,
such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not
officially categorized as mobile phones, since they
did not support the automatic change of channel
frequency during calls, which allows the user to
move from one cell (the base station coverage
area) to another cell, a feature called "handover".
In 1970, Bell Labs invented such a "call handoff"
feature, which allowed mobile-phone users to
travel through several cells during the same
conversation. Motorola is widely considered to be
the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for
handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a
modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset,
Motorola manager Martin Cooper made the first call
on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973.
The first commercial cellular network was launched
in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular
networks were first introduced in the early to mid
1980s (the 1G generation) with the Nordic Mobile
Telephone (NMT) system in 1981. This was
followed by a boom in mobile telephone usage,
particularly in Northern Europe.
The first "modern" network technology on digital
2G (second generation) cellular technology was
launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in
1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also
marked the introduction of competition in mobile
telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent
Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran
a 1G NMT network. A decade later, the first
commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was
again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA
standard.Until the early 1990s, most mobile
phones were too large to be carried in a jacket
pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles
as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital
components, mobile phones have become
increasingly handy over the years.

The mobile phone manufacturers can be grouped

into two. The top five are available in practically all
countries and comprise about 75% of all phones
sold. A second tier of small manufacturers exists
with phones mostly sold only in specific regions or
for niche markets.
Mobile phones generally obtain power from
batteries which can be recharged from mains
power, a USB port or a cigarette lighter socket in a
car. Formerly, the most common form of cell phone
batteries were nickel metal-hydride, as they have a
low size and weight. Lithium-Ion batteries are
sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not
have the voltage depression that nickel metal-
hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone
manufacturers have now switched to using lithium-
Polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-
Ion, the main advantages of this being even lower
weight and the possibility to make the battery a
shape other than strict cuboid. Cell phone
manufacturers have been experimenting with
alternate power sources.
Mobile phones and the network they operate under
vary significantly from provider to provider, and
country to country. However, all of them
communicate through electromagnetic radio waves
with a cell site base station, the antennas of which
are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building.
The phones have a low-power transceiver that
transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites,
usually not more than 5 to 8 miles (approximately
8 to 13 kilometers) away. When the mobile phone
or data device is turned on, it registers with the
mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its
unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the
mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone
call. The handset constantly listens for the
strongest signal being received from the
surrounding base stations. As the user moves
around the network, the mobile device will
"handoff" to various cell sites during calls, or while
waiting (idle) between calls it will reselect cell sites.
Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one
or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast
their presence and relay communications between
the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in
turn connects the call to another subscriber of the
same wireless service provider or to the public
telephone network, which includes the networks of
other wireless carriers. Many of these sites are
camouflaged to blend with existing environments,
particularly in scenic areas.

The dialogue between the handset and the cell site

is a stream of digital data that includes digitized
audio (except for the first generation analog
networks). The technology that achieves this
 depends on the system which the mobile phone
operator has adopted. The technologies are
grouped by generation. The first generation
systems started in 1979 with Japan, are all analog
and include AMPS and NMT. Second generation
systems started in 1991 in Finland are all digital
and include GSM, CDMA and TDMA. Third
generation networks are still being deployed,
started with Japan in 2001, are all digital and offer
high speed data access in addition to voice services
and include WCDMA known also as UMTS, and
CDMA2000 EV-DO. China will launch a third 3G
technlogy on the TD-SCDMA standard. Each
network operator has a unique radio frequency
band.
• Model: dial candlestick
• Made by: Strowger Automatic
• From: 1905
 Photo courtesy John Jenkins
Notes
This is the first dial telephone. The inventor,
Almon Strowger, was an undertaker in
Kansas City who got upset because the
operators there kept putting business
through to his competition. So he developed
the first automated telephone switch and dial
telephones. Strowger's company was later
bought out by Automatic Electric.