Motorola Demonstrates Portable Telephone

The Motorola Press Release read New York, April 3, 1973 – A hand-held, completely portable telephone which will allow its user to place or receive telephone calls from virtually anywhere in the metro area equipped with the new DYNA T-A-C™ system, was demonstrated today by Motorola Inc. This new DYNA T-A-C™ portable radio telephone will operate over radio frequencies and “talk” to any conventional telephone in the world, according to Motorola Vice Presidents John F.Mitchell and Martin Cooper. Mitchell is general manager of the company’s communications division, and Cooper is director of systems operations for the division. At the time, Richard Frenkiel was the head of systems engineering for Bell Laboratories. “It was a real triumph, he said about Mr. Cooper’s phone. “We were using 30-pound units in the trunks of cars. So, their ability to package the whole thing into a 2-pound unit was a great breakthrough.” (New York Times, “Cell Phones Ruin the Opera? Meet the Culprit, by Ted Oehmke January 4, 2000)”