4 ms·

Cell Phone Technology Should Have Been Available After WWII

2 points by TheSpine 6y ago

eesmith 6y ago
Years ago I read several books by L. Neil Smith, a noted libertarian SF author. His North American Confederacy series posited that if the early US had been really libertarian (changing the Declaration of Independence to "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed") then technology and social rights would have been far in advance of what actually happened. (Eg, peaceful end to slavery in 1820, Moon colonies by the 1940s.) This comes across as the same sort of libertarian fantasy. Let's consider "the 37 year incubation of the cell phone". As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#The_cellular_concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#The_c... points out, there was more than just the proposal from the 1940s in order to get cell phones: > At this stage, the technology to implement these ideas did not exist, nor had the frequencies been allocated ... > In all these early examples, a mobile phone had to stay within the coverage area serviced by one base station throughout the phone call, i.e. there was no continuity of service as the phones moved through several cell areas. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff, as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology, were described in the late 1960s, in papers by Frenkiel and Porter. Which means the "handie-talkies" were far different than what we think of now for cellular technology. The article argues that frequency allocation was the main issue, with fierce resistance by the TV broadcast industry for changing the allocation, and with internal inertia preventing new technology development. To counter-balance that argument, we need only look outside the US. Again, from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#Emergence_of_automated_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#Emerg... : > The first fully automated mobile phone system for vehicles was launched in Sweden in 1956. Named MTA (Mobiltelefonisystem A), ... MTA phones consisted of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed 40 kilograms (88 lb). In 1962, an upgraded version called Mobile System B (MTB) was introduced. This was a push-button telephone, and used transistors and DTMF signaling to improve its operational reliability. In 1971 the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success. ... > In 1958 development began on a similar system for motorists in the USSR ... > One of the first successful public commercial mobile phone networks was the ARP network in Finland, launched in 1971. ... (Not bad for the 'innovation famine' of Europe, eh?) So there were multiple attempts, in multiple regulatory regimes. If cell phones were simple enough that we "should" have had them shortly after WWII, then it would have been done elsewhere. Which to me strongly suggests that the explanation given here is too facile.

2 points by TheSpine 6y ago

Years ago I read several books by L. Neil Smith, a noted libertarian SF author. His North American Confederacy series posited that if the early US had been really libertarian (changing the Declaration of Independence to "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed") then technology and social rights would have been far in advance of what actually happened. (Eg, peaceful end to slavery in 1820, Moon colonies by the 1940s.) This comes across as the same sort of libertarian fantasy. Let's consider "the 37 year incubation of the cell phone". As https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#The_cellular_concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#The_c... points out, there was more than just the proposal from the 1940s in order to get cell phones: > At this stage, the technology to implement these ideas did not exist, nor had the frequencies been allocated ... > In all these early examples, a mobile phone had to stay within the coverage area serviced by one base station throughout the phone call, i.e. there was no continuity of service as the phones moved through several cell areas. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff, as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology, were described in the late 1960s, in papers by Frenkiel and Porter. Which means the "handie-talkies" were far different than what we think of now for cellular technology. The article argues that frequency allocation was the main issue, with fierce resistance by the TV broadcast industry for changing the allocation, and with internal inertia preventing new technology development. To counter-balance that argument, we need only look outside the US. Again, from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#Emergence_of_automated_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#Emerg... : > The first fully automated mobile phone system for vehicles was launched in Sweden in 1956. Named MTA (Mobiltelefonisystem A), ... MTA phones consisted of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed 40 kilograms (88 lb). In 1962, an upgraded version called Mobile System B (MTB) was introduced. This was a push-button telephone, and used transistors and DTMF signaling to improve its operational reliability. In 1971 the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success. ... > In 1958 development began on a similar system for motorists in the USSR ... > One of the first successful public commercial mobile phone networks was the ARP network in Finland, launched in 1971. ... (Not bad for the 'innovation famine' of Europe, eh?) So there were multiple attempts, in multiple regulatory regimes. If cell phones were simple enough that we "should" have had them shortly after WWII, then it would have been done elsewhere. Which to me strongly suggests that the explanation given here is too facile.