Introducing (1978!) Cellular Phone Service
![](https://cdn.nextgov.com/media/img/cd/2014/02/04/020414cellphonesNG/860x394.jpg?1627584749)
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Bell Labs explains Advanced Mobile Phone Service, available in a car near you.
AT&T's archives of the Bell Labs research and media provides a neverending stream of fascinating tidbits about the development of modern mobile communications.
Recently, archivist Robin Edgerton discovered a 1978 film called " Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) " that is the earliest she's found that describes cellular telephone operation.
The honeycomb-like structure of a cellular network is shown and the principles of its operations, first laid out in a 1947 paper , are described.
![](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/2014/02/hexagons/af59198e6.jpg)
If the timeline for mobile (i.e. cellular) phone communications seems too early, that's because we're not talking about handheld phones. Mobile telephony, at this time, implied car phones . In 1976, there were 44,000 mobile phones on the Bell System, according to this excellent concise history of mobile telephony .
( Image via Picksell / Shutterstock.com )
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