From the very first mobile phones that were installed in cars to the micro devices that are smaller than the palm of a person's hand, cellular-phone history tracks the technology of radio wave communications.



At first mobile phones were installed into cars and only those who had the financial means were able to afford to get them installed. Later, the next-generation models were equipped with a plug that can be inserted into a car's cigarette lighter and were dubbed as "bag phones" and could be transported from vehicle to vehicle. This beginning step in the history of cell phones pushed the industry to transform cellular phones into devices that could be carried in your shirt pocket.

At Bell Labs and engineer first thought of the idea of making available towers that would carry the singles from each respective telephone in the squares in which they were placed, called cells, required the user of the cell phone to stay within the particular cell from which the call originated or they would lose single strengthened and consequently the call would end abruptly. It was not until the year 1970 that the next step in the history of cell phones took place with the advent of the call hand off system giving a call the ability to be transferred from cell to cell without any loss of signal strength.

FCC Designated Frequencies

Back in 1982 the history of cell phones took another large step when the Federal Communications Commission assigned a frequency range for the exclusive utilization of cell phones. At this point in time the generation of cell phones were analog technology and were very bulky and large. They were compared to holding a brick up to your ear, however their progress to smaller more manageable units was not made until the beginning of the 1990s, when digital cellular service frequencies were earmarked.

As early as 1954 part of the history of cell phones was highlighted when Humphrey Bogart made a call in the back of his limousine in the movie Sabrina as businessmen Linus Larrabee. Phones are used together with ham radio for wireless calls around the world during the 1960s and 1970s, however because of security reasons, business was never conducted on these calls.

The newer generation of cell phones have advanced a history of cellular phones by giving them the ability to receive streaming audio and video as well as having reduced sized electronic components giving them the ability to be utilized as miniature computers enable with voice transmissions as well as text applications.