An interview with the inventor of the cellphone

Everyone and their dog knows that the man attributed with the invention of the telephone as we know it today is Alexander Graham Bell. Regardless of the circumstances around the validity of his patent, his work went on to become the basis for the modern telephone system in place across the globe today and radically changed the way information was communicated across long distances. The Telegraph became the Telephone and history shows us how completely that changed the lives of everyone in the 20th century. Especially after the laying of the great Atlantic cable between the US and the UK.

But how many of you are aware of who invented the cell phone?

In 1973, a group of Engineers from Motorola received a patent for a “radio telephone system” that was the genesis for what became the cellular phone we are all tethered to today. At the lead of that team, and widely credited as being the man responsible for the invention was Martin Cooper. His first working phone was over 1KG heavy and had a battery life of 20minutes. But as he put it, 20 minutes was fine because you couldn’t hold it to your ear that long anyway.

On March 6, 2010, CSPAN’s “The Communicators” did an interview with Martin Cooper to get his view of the current market place as well as what he thinks needs to be done going forward in regards to capacity and technology. This is the man that started the “spectrum efficiency” campaign. The whole original design of cellular technology was to allow spectrum efficiency. The same piece of spectrum could be used by many people in a large geographical area by splitting that area into “cells” and ensuring that no 2 cells using the same spectrum at the same time could directly overlap. Thus the limited range of most cellular sites is deliberate. Especially in congested areas.

The great thing about CSPAN is that its a federal government owned media organisation setup deliberately to discuss or broadcast federal politics. This means that its free to all American’s. And the internet being the internet, that means its essentially free for anyone and everyone to watch any time. That they put this interview on YouTube makes it even easier for us to capture and witness an interview with one of the most influential men of the 20th century. As he says in the interview, would you give up your cellphone?