History Of The First Cell Phone In The World

DynaTAC (Source: American History)

JAKARTA - You could say, Martin Cooper, a technician who worked at Motorola, was the first to succeed in making a wireless telephone prototype. In the early 1970s, when Cooper's innovation had yet to materialize, the world did not know a cellphone that could be used anywhere as it is today.

In fact, the research division of the company AT&T, Bell Laboratories, created the concept of cellular communication in 1947. However, the concept was stalled as it competed with the Motorola company in the 60-70s to actually make portable products.

At Motorola, Martin Cooper and designer Rudy Krolopp didn't want to lose. They worked on a "shoe" telephone project using many existing electronic patents. They are trying to make the first wireless cellphone prototype.

Finally, an innovation materialized. The first cellphone without cable was successfully made. Cooper gave it the name Motorola DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage). The phone is 9 inches tall, weighs 2.5 pounds, with 30 circuit boards. With the cell phone, people could call for 35 minutes with the need for a recharge time of ten hours.

After establishing a mobile base station in New York, Martin Cooper, on this day, April 3 47 years ago or in 1973, he made his first call to Joel Engel, the head of research at Bell Lab. DynaTAC was made by Cooper and his team within three months. Time is relatively short, considering that Cooper needed thousands of parts to build the cellphone.

"I made a lot of calls, including when I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter. Perhaps, one of the most dangerous things I have ever done in my life," Cooper said as quoted by Wired .

After that, Motorola spent another ten years perfecting the technology and taking care of regulations. Commercial service only started in 1983. The DynaTAC device was further scaled back to reduce its weight by 16 ounces.

At that time, the first mobile phone was priced at US $ 3,500 - the same as US $ 21,162 this year. But that was 1990, before cell phone service reached a million US customers.

Motorola DynaTAC obtains patent number 3906166 entitled "Radio Telephone System." Meanwhile, Time Magazine, in 2007, named Cooper's creation as the best invention. In 2013, Cooper received the Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering.