It was in effect a massive party line, where a tightly controlled number of subscribers had to listen first for someone else on the line, and, if finding the line free, signal an operator, who would place the call. At most, three subscribers could make calls at one time in any city using the single transmitter and the tiny amount of spectrum allocated by the Federal Communications Commission to this service. Between one and eight receiver towers handled the call return signals. A single transmitter on a central tower provided a handful of channels for an entire metropolitan area. This wireless network could handle only a small volume of calls. But with only 5,000 customers making 30,000 weekly calls, it was far from commonplace. Customers included utilities, truck fleet operators and reporters. By 1948, wireless telephone service was available in almost one hundred cities and highway corridors. Romnes from AT&T’s manufacturing subsidiary, Western Electric, had worked more than a decade to achieve this feat. Mitchell from AT&T’s research unit, Bell Labs, and H. It was the first mobile telephone call, placed on a system inaugurated by Southwestern Bell, one of AT&T’s local operating companies.Ī team including Alton Dickieson and D. Louis pulled out a handset from under his car’s dashboard, placed a phone call and made history. This article was initially published in Today's Engineer on August 2012 (Courtesy AT&T Archives and History Center.) Dave Meilhan, the first cellular telephone customer in Chicago, makes a call from his car phone, 1983.
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