The Birth of the Mobile Phone

kelliwon · ‎01-12-2012

With MLK Jr. Day this month, it got me thinking of his famous I Have a Dream speech, which I very much treasure, made in 1963. The only thing this time, being a fan of mobility, I decided to finish off that sentence with "... to one day have a mobile phone!". Imagining the times before mobile phones were invented, I couldn't help but wonder who exactly had this dream of the possibility of mobile phones? I fully admit I would not have that genius thought back when it was developing and I would have most likely resorted to the classic two can, one string of yarn method as a solution to my communication problem- very ineffective I must say.

As I thought of this question about the birth of the mobile phone, I decided to do some research and discovered "the first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr. Martin Cooper, an engineer form Chicago, Illinois and now 83 years old, in 1973, using a handset weighing around 1 kg". Cooper is considered to be the inventor of the first mobile phone for handheld use and after his initial testing in Washington for the F.C.C. he took the phone technology to New York to show the public. I guess we can say the rest is history! Thank you Dr. Martin Cooper for the birth of the mobile phone - its been a lifestyle changer and proved it from 1990 to 2010 alone, when worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion. Who would have thought the development of mobile phones would have come to be what it is today with features such as apps, cameras and touch screens? Still amazed and still grateful.

If the story of the birth of the mobile phone interest you, watch this video with Dr. Steven Shepard featuring stories of the pioneers of the telecom network, including the transatlantic cable in 1858.