What The Tech?! Mobile Telephones
The evolution from landline to mobile device dragged us into the modern age.
If you’re a regular What the Tech reader, you may have noticed that our early pieces have primarily focused around communications, with satellites and fiber optics just some of the subject material from our earlier pieces. Today we’ll continue that trend by look at the early stages of mobile phone development prior to smartphones becoming the next big thing.
The Early Days
While it may come as a surprise to many, the first steps in actual mobile phone development occurred shortly after WW2, when US based AT&T built the first base station and cell units for development purposes. While these devices technically fit the criteria for mobile phones, they were rudimentary technology that in a lot of ways were more radio than phone like. Working off a decentralized network, these bulky early phones were used in localized communication experiments with no way of being integrated into the existing telephone network. They were also large devices, incapable of being mass produced due to the size of electronic components of the day. Like many pieces of wartime technology, it would take until the transistor was properly integrated before it would begin reach it’s peak and realistically be available to the masses after mass production.
