The Analog Cellular Age
? 1979 The first commercial mobile phone network was opened for business in Tokyo. (MCS-L1 introduced by NTT, AMPS based, 25 kHz channels)
? 1979 Pre-commercial operation of Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) in US
? 1981 Commercial operation of NMT450 (early September in Saudi Arabia, 1st October Sweden and week later in Denmark)
? 1982 GSM development started by "Groupe Spécial Mobile" formed by CEPT, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations
? 1982 INMARSAT service started
? March 6 1983 - Motorola introduced the world's first commercial portable cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
? October 13 1983 First commercial operation of AMPS (AT&T's Illinois Bell, Chicago)
? 1985 C450 system in commercial operation in Germany
? 1985 TACS system (AMPS based) in commercial operation in the UK
? 1985 RadioCom system in commercial operation in France
? 1985 IMT-2000 study began with the establishment of Interim Working Party 8/13 (IWP 8/13) by Decision 69 and work continued in Task Group 8/1. IMT stands for International Mobile Telecommunications and the number 2000 had three meanings. It was supposed to represent the year 2000, when the ITU hoped the system would become available, data rates of 2000 kbps and frequencies in the 2000 MHz region.
? 1986 NMT900 system introduced in Scandinavia
? 1987 European operators and administrators signed GSM MoU agreement and agreed on a launch date of 1 July 1991.The original French name was changed to Global System for Mobile communications.