The First Mobile Phone

The history of mobile phones begins with early efforts to develop radio telephone technology and from two-way radios in vehicles and continues through emergence of modern mobile phones and associated services.

Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held mobile radio devices have been available since 1973. Mobile phone history is often divided into generations (first, second, third and so on) to mark significant step changes in capabilities as the technology improved over the years.

Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the Father of the Mobile. introduced the brick-sized cell phone that had a hefty $4 per minute call charge.

  The First Mobile Phone

Inventor of the modern cell phone Martin Cooper recalls to the press, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones." Photo Credit Courtesy ArrayComm