History of the mobile phone - Nigel Linge
What a disappointment! The last time Nigel Linge came to talk to us he was wearing a bright blue knitted sweater with a red telephone kiosk emblazoned across it. Eighty people turned up on Monday to find out what he would be wearing this time. His fashion statement turned out to be a plain blue sweater with a darker blue jacket over it. Not the sartorial innovator we had come to expect; the Beau Brummell of the lecture circuit.
Nevertheless, as soon as the lecture began it was obvious he had not lost his touch. In the space of an hour he took us through the myriad of changes that have taken place over the last fifty years. The network changes from 1G through to 5G; the technical changes from analogue to digital; the physical changes from ‘bricks’ to flat plastic screens and even the company changes in both name and in ownership.
The first mobile phone might have been demonstrated in 1973 by Motorola but it was not until 1977 that it was made available commercially and that just in the USA. However, before that there was a form of mobile telephony launched in Britain, and in Manchester, no less. This was the South Lancashire Radiophone Service which was indeed a mobile telephone but supported by a boot-full of electronics in the car to operate it. This was connected to two VHF stations. A good try but the wrong technology. The Motorola phone was based on the cellular principle whereby it connected to a web of low-powered base stations (cells) and the signal is passed from one to another as the source moves.
Vodafone VT1The new technology spread quickly with the first commercial network in the USA in 1977, followed soon after in Scandinavia. The UK launched its first network in 1985 with two operators - a subsidiary of Racal called Vodafone (voice and data telephone) and Cellnet which was a joint venture between BT and Securicor. Neither operator showed signs of the enormous industry that would soon emerge. Vodafone had only 20 salesmen and Cellnet were intending to launch with Noel Edmunds but on a trial run the phone he was calling was engaged so they abandoned the idea. These early 1G phones might have been mobile but they were certainly not pocket-sized. The two big manufacturers were Motorola and Nokia but the Vodafone handsets were, at best, ‘transportable’. Ten years after the initial launch 7% of the population had phones. A good start but not overwhelming. All European countries had different systems and technical standards so there was no mobility between countries. This had to change so in 1987 all European countries committed to developing a single system.
2G was introduced in 1991 and at the same time two more companies were licensed - One2One and Orange. The technology was digital which allowed encrypted conversation, a more efficient use of spectrum and some limited data services. The first text messages could be sent and this quickly became a widespread method of communication. As a result, the use of mobile phones began to take off. In 1995 there were enough phones to equip 7% of the UK population. Four years later this had risen to 46% and by 2004 100%. This did not mean that everyone in the country possessed a mobile phone; rather it demonstrated the widespread (and often multiple) use of this new technology.
However, before the development of 3G there was an intermediate step. 2.5G. Although phones were now capable of transmitting text, they were not designed with that in mind. With one exception - the Blackberry. Originally introduced in 1999 as a means of delivering email over several different networks, the ‘killer app’ was released in 2002 with the Blackberry 5810 which could support a variety of wireless services and, critically, incorporated a QWERTY keyboard. Despite the price premium this proved popular with business customers and, at its peak in 2011 there were 85 million subscribers worldwide. But it then began to lose its dominant position because of the success of the Android and iOS platforms. By 2016 it had lost three quarters of its market.
In the meantime a stimulus to the market came with the introduction of 3G in 2001 but at the same time the over-exuberance shown by the operators held back the implementation of the new technology. 3G enabled much higher speeds, improved voice quality and multimedia capability (transmission of video.) All the operators were determined to use its capabilities and as a result they over-extended themselves in bidding for licences. In the UK they paid a combined sum of £22 billion. In the short term this was excellent news for the UK Treasury but in the longer term it slowed the pace of development quite markedly. The networks had spent so much on licenses they had no money for the investment that was needed and it was three years before they were able to make the technology available.
(click images to see full size)
Another major development which changed the industry was the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007. Technically, it was not particularly advanced. Nokia had more advanced features on their latest 3G phone but the iPhone was radically different in concept. At that time all phones were thought of as equipment for voice communication with additional features but the iPhone was conceived as a hand-held computer with various features, one of which was voice communication. This was an epiphany for the industry as the ‘smart phone’ was born. The traditional phone manufacturers put up a brave fight but increasingly lost ground to the electronic specialists. Samsung emerged to become the market leader in terms of sales but Apple retained the cachet of being the standard against which all cell phones are judged.
The networks too have changed and improved with the introduction first of 4G in 2006 and now 5G since 2019. These have enhanced internet access, introduced ‘Voice over Internet’, given more capacity and brought down costs. These changes have allowed new uses and we are moving towards the ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT. Essentially this refers to a network of devices, vehicles, appliances and other physical objects. They are all embedded with sensors, software and network connectivity allowing them to exchange data with other IoT devices and the Cloud. It is a vast and hydra-headed subject so perhaps Nigel should be invited back in a few years’ time to report on progress. In the meantime he left us with a thought: 6G is under discussion but no one has decided what it should do or even how it can do it. Whatever you do, don’t watch this space, we’ll bring in an expert.
Neil Mullineux - December 2024
Notes:
1st Camera Phone: Visual phone VP210 mobile video and camera phone, made by Kyocera Fineceramics GmbH, Japan, 1999. Silver mobile phone with 2-inch screen and built-in front camera.
Released in May 1999, the Kyocera VP 201 was the first commercially available mobile camera phone and the first mobile colour videophone. Designed with a forward-facing camera, it pre-dated the popularity of so-called selfies in the early 2000s. The phone was considered "revolutionary" at the time of launch.
The phone was developed by Kyocera Corporation, an electronics manufacturer based in Kyoto between 1997 and 1999. The 155 gram (5.5 oz.) camera could also take 20 photos and convey them by e-mail, with the camera phone retailing at the time for 40,000 yen, about US$325 in 1999.
1st iPhone: After more than two years of development, the device was first released in the United States in 2007. The iPhone was subsequently released in Europe in 2007 and Asia in 2008.Apple designed its first mobile smartphone to run the Mac OS X operating system, made popular on the company’s personal computers. The device’s most revolutionary element was its touch-sensitive multisensor interface. The touchscreen allowed users to manipulate all programs and telephone functions with their fingertips rather than a stylus or physical keys. This interface—perfected, if not invented, by Apple—recreated a tactile physical experience; for example, the user could shrink photos with a pinching motion or flip through music albums using a flicking motion. The iPhone also featured Internet browsing, music and video playback, a digital camera, visual voicemail, and a tabbed contact list.
The Standard reported on 21st March 2023 thata first-generation iPhone has sold for almost $55,000 at auction, equivalent to roughly £44,800, as spotted by MacRumors. This was more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device. The iPhone was not sold on eBay, where a couple of cheeky bidders can radically raise the price beyond a realistic estimate, but by RR Auction. It sells high-value items such as hand-drawn manuscripts from composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach.
Further reading:
Engaging with Communications- Nigel Linge- The Story of Mobiles
Tomorrow's World: Mobile Phone 13 September 1979 - BBC
