The modern-day mobile phone started with a company called Motorola, Inc. It was an American multinational telecommunications company founded on the 25th of September 1928, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. Its demise occurred after losing $4.3 billion between 2007 and 2009. Due to such large losses, the company demerged into two independent public companies called Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. The demerger happened on the 4th of January 2011. Yet, 47 years prior to the divide, on the 3rd of April 1973, Motorola mass-produced the worlds very first handheld mobile phone. Nicknamed ‘The Brick’ and it had a price tag of over £7,500. Talk about iPhones being overpriced, right? So how did the world go from no mobile phones to mass producing them for the very first time?
Well, the origins of mobile phone technology are widely disputed. The accounts that history remembers best goes back to 1908. We know this because that was the year when a US Patent was issued in Kentucky for a wireless telephone. That document left a footprint in history as the moment it all began.
Devices that were classed as mobile phones were invented as early as the 1940s when engineers working at AT&T developed cells for mobile phone base stations. The very first mobile phones were not really mobile phones at all. They were two-way radios that allowed people working in sectors like the emergency services to communicate and make their teams more efficient.
Mobile phones started to morph into what we know them as today after the transition from two separate cells to one very powerful cell, trust us when we say, it's not worth delving deep into what 'cells' are, but if you must, here is a Wikipedia article. We digressed. The network was able to cover a large area, creating the network needed to have a wireless mobile phone.
These cells were named base stations. The very first base stations were installed in the UK in 1984. They were a very large and heavy piece of kit. During a trial period, engineers drove around the country making calls to patient volunteers to test the signal strength. Just imagine that! Today, the UK is falling behind other European countries with its cellular network, but that's a topic of another blog post.
To continue, Vodafone launched its network on New Year’s Day in 1985 and Cellnet followed a few days later. The infrastructure of the networks and the technology involved were the most important parts of history that gave birth to the modern-day mobile phone. These early mobile phones are often referred to as 0G mobile phones, or the Zero Generation mobile phones. As you may well know, most phones today rely on 3G or 4G mobile technology with 5G already available in some areas.
So in theory, thanks to scientists from as early as 1928. We can provide our clients with the mobile payment solutions they deserve today. How interesting, right?
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