The Incredible Evolution of Mobile Phones

(a brief account of the developments in mobile technology)

The history of mobile phones can be traced as far back as 1910 when Lars Magnus Ericsson experimented with a phone in his car, connecting to the fixed line telephone network.  This was by no means mobile but the idea was to start a revolutionary telecommunications trend. 

Fast Forward to the 1950’s and we would have seen Ericsson developed the first fully automatic mobile phone system released commercially in Sweden 1956.  It was called the MTA (mobile system A) and weighed in at a whopping 40kg (90lbs) - So much for a mobile phone. 

Evolution of mobile phones (source WIKI) 

Meanwhile in the U.S. Martin Cooper (pictured below), a Motorolla researcher and executive was credited as the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting.  He is said to have made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell labs.

The preceding decades saw significant improvements in the technology and as a direct benefit from transistor technology the size and weight of phones decreased greatly.  Tokyo, Japan welcomed the first automated commercial cellular network (NTT) in 1979 to be followed in 1981 by simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.  

The First Generation (1G) network saw its beginings in the USA as the Chicago based Ameritech launched in 1983 using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phones.  Several countries later came on board in the mid 1980's including Mexico, UK and Canada.

In the 90’s we saw second generation (2G) mobile systems like GSM, IS-136 (TDMA) and IS-95 (CDMA) rolled out with reasonable acceptance in the developed world. This soon caught on with the developing world as new markets opened up at the turn of the 90’s.  

The global user base grew even faster with the introduction of the Third Generation (3G) mobile technologies.  This is the International Mobile Telecommunications – 2000 (IMT -2000) family of standards defined by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).  They include GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000.  The 3G standards represents greater capabilities including higher speeds/Data Rates (up to 14.0 Mbit/s), simultaneous voice, data and video services, and a variety of different applications. We can readily relate to these technology advances when we pick up our Blackberry, Android or I-Phone handsets to check emails, browse the web, shop and even watch a live Football match.  

The Fourth Generation (4G) systems are already being marketed and rolled out by some companies.  This offers even greater capabilities and consequently demands an enhanced infrastructure to manage the large data rate of 125 Mbps.  The ITU defines these as the IMT-Advanced standards as a follow up from the IMT-2000.  The third generation partnership project (3GPP) calls it the LTE-Advanced and was expected to roll out the full 4G technology by 2011.  

Wimax with its mobile wireless broadband standard (IEEE 802.16e-2005) is often branded as 4G technology, although not purely so.  The IMT-Advanced Wimax 4G standard IEEE 802.16m (Advanced Air Interface with data rates of 100 Mbps mobile and 1 Gbps fixed) is however in progress.  In the Caribbean we know that Wimax modems are offered by Digicel  and LIME(Jamaica) and by BMobile Trinidad.


The WHO Fact Sheet No. 193 (May 2010) states that there are currently 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions globally referring to the end of 2009 when measurements were last taken.  This number has and will continue to grow as new infrastructures are being rolled out daily.  


In some parts of the world mobile phones are the only or the most reliable form of telecommunication.  We have come a far way from when legacy PSTN (public switched telephone service) used to dominate telecommunications to a new era where mobile cellular telephone subscriptions has surpassed fixed telephone lines (PSTN) since 2002

ICT Trends 2000 - 2010 (Source ITU)

We know that Tablets and Netbooks have entered the market vigorously and the argument is that they offer similar mobility and could be included in the numbers. It would be incredible, the  numbers if we classify those subscriptions together with mobile cellular telephones.  


The distinction has to be made though that mobile cellular telephone subscriptions refer to the basic bearer services such as telephone and SMS/MMS and supplementary services such as voicemail, call waiting etc. that do not require a smart phone.   Mobile Broadband subscription on the other hand refers to the data services that are coupled with the basic services on devices that are capable of broadband communications.  These include the Wimax and commercial WIFI. 


Mobile phones continue to lead the way in terms of subscriptions and penetration but mobile broadband subscription will see a similarly sharp growth in the coming years. 


As we continue to monitor the growth of Mobile Phone Technologies we are left to wonder how far it will peak and the impacts it will have on how we live.  Will it be superseded by some other revolutionary technology or will it evolve to remain the leader in connecting people and communities? 


Some Other Interesting Facts (Source ITU):


The ITU says there are now 5.3 billion mobile cellular subscriptions across the world, including 940 million subscriptions to mobile broadband services, a figure which is tipped to reach one billion before the end of this year.

The ITU rReport says access to mobile networks is now available to 90 per cent of the world's population overall. Of people living in rural areas, 80 per cent now have mobile cellular coverage.

Two billion videos are watched every day on YouTube, while five billion photos are now hosted on Flickr.