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Martin Cooper - Inventor of the Cell Phone

Have you ever pondered over who invented the cell phone? Well, the inventor of the cell phone
is named Martin Cooper and he is the man responsible for the generation and development of
the very first cell phone.
Although, it was a research team associated with AT&T that first introduced the whole idea of
cellular communications in 1947.
Sufficient to say that the very first cell phone ever invented was a far cry from the cell phones of
today! Read on to learn all about cell phone inventor Martin Cooper and then read through our
loads of cell phone reviews to find the best cell phone!
Martin Cooper grew up in Chicago. He served 4 years in the U.S. Navy. He studied and received
his degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Upon graduation he
worked for 1 year at a telecommunications company.
Cooper was hired by the Motorola Company in 1954. It was during this employment that he
developed the first portable hand held police radio for the Chicago Police Department in 1967. It
was after he was promoted to division manager and was assigned a team, that he developed the
first hand held phone.
It was April 3, 1973 that the first working prototype of the cell phone was introduced. This was
also the day of the first cell phone call being placed by Mr. Cooper. This first prototype was a
Motorola Dyna-Tac Phone. The Dyna-Tac cell phone was:
o 9x5x1.175 inches
o Had 30 circuit boards
o Weighed 2.5 pounds
o A talk time of 35 minutes
o A recharge time of 10 hours
o Its only features were talk, listen,and dial
The prototype, while sharing the same name with the final product, still needed some work to be
commercially ready for the general public. There were still hurdles to overcome with the FCC.
Initially, only 40 MHz was allocated for mobile service (in 1974).
In 1975 AT&T applied to the FCC for permission to operate a cell system in the city of Chicago.
That license was not granted until March 1977. Upon approval Illinois Bell commenced
construction of a cell system, and got it up and running. In 1978 the equipment test phase began.
This phase included:
o 2000 trial customers
o 2100 test mobile phones
The use of mobile communications started long before the 1970s. As early as 1921 mobile
radios were utilized by police (in Detroit) nearing 2MHz. The frequencies rose to about 30-40
MHz by 1940. This encouraged the building up of the police systems. It also attracted the
following groups to invest in and utilize mobile units:
1. Private companies
2. Public agencies
3. Individuals
In 1945 the first public mobile telephone system was instituted. This system had 3 channels with
150 MHZ. By 1947 a public mobile system was installed between New York and Boston. This
system introduced the push to talk operation.
In 1964, the phone system had developed as far as to do away with the push to talk function.
Customers could now dial the numbers themselves without the aid of mobile operators. 1953
ushered in even greater frequencies, by expanding to an 800 MHz region.
The first commercially available phone on the market was the Motorola Dyna-Tac. While using
the same name of the prototype, it weighed less. This Dyna-Tac weighed in at 16 ounces. The
hefty part was the price. The tag on the Dyna-Tac? $3,5000! Yep, you read it right the price of
the first cell phone was three thousand five hundred dollars!
More than just the high price tags of cell phones have changed over the years. Check out this
cool image representation of how the size of cell phones have changed over the years courtesy
ofKyle Bean from Design Milk (the Dyna-Tec is the first phone on the left):

Martin Cooper is now the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of a company called Array
Communications Incorporated. The main mission of his company is to free the people of the
constraints of specific places in which calls can be made, and to do away with the copper wires
that constrain them.
Look no more for a company with future goals and aspirations. Array Communications was
founded in 1992. It is a wireless technology and systems company. It seeks to make wireless
communication more reliable and affordable for everyone.
Array Communications has developed a core adaptive antenna that will increase the basic
coverage of any cellular system. They have also created a personal broadband system called i-
Burst. This system allows for mobile access to the internet that is affordable for everyone.
Martin Cooper had a vision for the nation. He desired mobile capabilities that freed the individual
from the constraints of even the wireled landline phones. The race for mobile took serious strides
in the 1960s and 1970s when Motorola and Bell vied to translate technology to actual
application.
It might have taken 37 years for mobile phones to be commercially available, but now that they
are here, they are here to stay. Start reading through reviews of cell phones no