On 31-Mar-12 04:23, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:30:13 on Fri, 30 Mar
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
to distinguish the technology from pre-cellular mobile telephones that
were built into automobiles and communicated with base stations with
much longer ranges than transponders on cell towers.

Are you referring to "radio telephones"?

There were cellular car phones as well, back before handheld models were
available.

My recollection is that the first cellular phones were handheld. But
they were heavy and nor very "portable". As a result it was helpful to
mount them in a car, which had other attractions like dealing with the
battery problem and making them less easy to steal.

There were a few handhelds like the DynaTAC, but most of the phones I
remember seeing back then were "bag phones" (the size of a lunch pail,
with a corded handset) that were more "luggable" than "portable".
Phones you could put in your pocket or wear on your belt didn't become
common until the mid-90s, IIRC.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking