Early mobile phone

[Oliver Hardy]

Had an argument with a friend who insists mobile phones in the late 80s early 90s worked off satellites.

Which leads me to search the web without much success, how much were satellite phones in the late 80s and what were their costs.

How did mobile phones work before cell phones, you see car phones in old movies.

My friend also insists TV and phone signals can be sent down the same cables, can they?

[HappyMidget]

Oliver Hardy said:

My friend also insists TV and phone signals can be sent down the same cables, can they?

Yes, this is why you have a splitter on broadband coming therough POTS (standard telephone line) to split the frequencies between voice and digital.

[robsa]

Oliver Hardy said:

Had an argument with a friend who insists mobile phones in the late 80s early 90s worked off satellites.

Which leads me to search the web without much success, how much were satellite phones in the late 80s and what were their costs.

How did mobile phones work before cell phones, you see car phones in old movies.

My friend also insists TV and phone signals can be sent down the same cables, can they?

No, pretty sure that's wrong. They existed but weren't the cellphones we use today. The thing in the early 90s was a change from analogue to digital though, I remember using the analogue cellphones in the early 90s. I'm sure someone far more knowledgeable will be along shortly to expand on this.

ETA Carphones were cellphones.

[Nova Gyna]

I think early mobiles were connected to radio towers, which transmitted signals to a base station that was connected to a traditional landline phone system.

[annodomini2]

First Satellite phone was 1998:

https://globalcomsatphone.com/history-of-the-handh...

1G phones operate a similar setup to now, but used analogue rather than digital radio.

[Simpo Two]

Oliver Hardy said:

How did mobile phones work before cell phones, you see car phones in old movies

How old? There's always radio - 'walkie-talkies' and CB radio.

I think 'mobile phones' - ie not radio - have always used cells because at those frequencies range is poor. The higher the frequency, the less range. I think the change from analogue to digital was to allow more users.

[motco]

I had a Cellnet car phone in 1986 0860 316317 IIRC

[Sheepshanks]

Oliver Hardy said:

How did mobile phones work before cell phones, you see car phones in old movies.

Post Office had car radio phones from 1959 - https://www.storno.co.uk/radiophone.htm

[motco]

Sheepshanks said:

Oliver Hardy said:

How did mobile phones work before cell phones, you see car phones in old movies.

Post Office had car radio phones from 1959 - https://www.storno.co.uk/radiophone.htm

London Radiophone

[Aunty Pasty]

Remember the Rabbit points? Early cell coverage was low and scattered. you literally had to walk to a Rabbit point which was a signposted cell point before connecting and making a call. I can't remember wether this was analogue or digital without doing a search.

[Simpo Two]

motco said:

I had a Cellnet car phone in 1986 0860 316317 IIRC

It was Cellnet and Vodaphone. One of our directors had a car phone; he used to phone reception to tell her he was on his way when he was half a mile away.

Aunty Pasty said:

Remember the Rabbit points? Early cell coverage was low and scattered. you literally had to walk to a Rabbit point which was a signposted cell point before connecting and making a call.

Like a wifi hotspot.

[motco]

Simpo Two said:

motco said:

I had a Cellnet car phone in 1986 0860 316317 IIRC

It was Cellnet and Vodaphone. One of our directors had a car phone; he used to phone reception to tell her he was on his way when he was half a mile away.

Aunty Pasty said:

Remember the Rabbit points? Early cell coverage was low and scattered. you literally had to walk to a Rabbit point which was a signposted cell point before connecting and making a call.

Like a wifi hotspot.

There's still the occasional Rabbit sign on the outside of shops. Hutchison Telecom IIRC

[Zoon]

HappyMidget said:

Oliver Hardy said:

My friend also insists TV and phone signals can be sent down the same cables, can they?

Yes, this is why you have a splitter on broadband coming therough POTS (standard telephone line) to split the frequencies between voice and digital.

Are you sure about TV?
I know Virgin send everything over Coax, but not a traditional phone line.

[Dogwatch]

Aunty Pasty said:

Remember the Rabbit points? Early cell coverage was low and scattered. you literally had to walk to a Rabbit point which was a signposted cell point before connecting and making a call. I can't remember wether this was analogue or digital without doing a search.

Wasn’t there something about wanting to have one at every filling station?

[997s]

The car phones before cellphone networks used VHF radio. The operator would connect the call.

Then Cellular networks launched mid 80's this was a higher frequency (800mhz) and gave the ability to dial direct, and by network design (cells) the phone would hand off to the next base station as you moved.

Nope, no satellites used.

[Oliver Hardy]

997s said:

The car phones before cellphone networks used VHF radio. The operator would connect the call.

Then Cellular networks launched mid 80's this was a higher frequency (800mhz) and gave the ability to dial direct, and by network design (cells) the phone would hand off to the next base station as you moved.

Nope, no satellites used.

Come across this video on Air Call really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOU0TkMXMlE

How far from a transmitter will a mobile phone work. I tryed to look it up, my simple mind got confused, some where talking about 45 miles others were talking abut 1000ft, both figures seem not right to me?

[kerplunk]

997s said:

The car phones before cellphone networks used VHF radio. The operator would connect the call.

Then Cellular networks launched mid 80's this was a higher frequency (800mhz) and gave the ability to dial direct, and by network design (cells) the phone would hand off to the next base station as you moved.

Nope, no satellites used.

yeah that sounds right.

I used to work for BT in the 80s (still called Post Office Telecommunications when I started) and remember chatting to a colleague in the pub about what he was up to - he said he was working on some new mobile phone system that was gonna be big. Within a few years I'd set up as self employed and owned one - a chunky motorola hand-held. Would've been 87/88. I still have the phone on a shelf in my office, and still have the same phone number (with the 7 prefix added). I took it to glastonbury festival in 1990 so i could check my 'voicemail' (= call my answering machine) but it stayed in my tent - I would've been embarrassed to walk around with it then - look at that yuppie!

Edited by kerplunk on Sunday 8th January 14:07

[alabbasi]

Radio towers.

[ARHarh]

Early mobiles worked on the analogue system from cell towers, many of which have been upgraded over the years to modern digital tech. I started working with mobiles in Jan 1986 and the coverage was patchy then to say the least. The products were poor, heavy and battery life was way worse than today. Not too mention stupidly expensive. I did get to play with some nice cars as we often fitted car kits to investors cars. One guy who had one fitted to his Ferrari 308 just handed me the keys and said "It could do with some fuel, here's my card, fill it could you, I saw a petrol station about 20 miles in that direction" Guess he could tell I wanted to have a play.

Myself and an RF engineer spent a few days tweaking the performance of this particular phone for tomorrows world. And that circuit board they show was a last minute panic cobbled together from the scrap box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icc2pHEj_xg

I spent a fair amount of my life building prototypes of mobile phones

[spikeyhead]

1G mobile phone technology in the UK was launched properly in the UK in the mid 80s.

It used a system called Total Access Communication System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Access_Communi...

Analog, unencrypted voice so anyone with the right kit could listen to your call, albeit it only one side of the conversation. Typical call costs were £1 a minute.

In the US a system called AMPS was used, and Scandinavia used NMT

Back then if you took a UK mobile to Spain, if the same number was in use in Spain you could use your mobile and they'd get the bill.