- Byname:
- Marty Cooper
- Born:
- December 26, 1928, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (age 97)
- Awards And Honors:
- Draper Prize (2013)
Martin Cooper
-
Who is Martin Cooper?
Martin Cooper, born on December 26, 1928, is an American engineer celebrated as the father of the cellular phone. In 1973, he led the Motorola team that created the first mobile cell phone and made the first cell phone call.
Cooper graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1950 and a master’s in 1957. After serving in the Korean War, he joined Motorola in 1954, where he worked on wireless communications projects, including handheld police radios and a radio-controlled traffic-light system.
In 1983, Cooper left Motorola and founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. (CBSI). In 1996, he and Arlene Harris, his wife, created ArrayComm, a wireless systems software developer, and GreatCall in 2006, which provided wireless service for the Jitterbug phone, which was designed for the elderly.
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What is Martin Cooper best known for inventing?
Martin Cooper is best known as the American engineer who spearheaded the 1972–73 team that created the first mobile cell phone and made the first cell phone call, earning him the title of the "father of the cellular phone".
Cooper felt cell phones should be portable, not stuck in cars. The resulting DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) phone was 9 inches tall, weighed 2.5 pounds, and had a 35-minute battery life. On April 3, 1973, Cooper publicly introduced the DynaTAC phone in New York City. He made the first public cell phone call to Joel Engel, head of AT&T’s rival project.
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How did Martin Cooper's invention change how people communicate?
Martin Cooper, an American engineer, spearheaded the 1972–73 team that created the first mobile cell phone and made the first cell phone call, earning him recognition as the "father of the cellular phone".
Cooper's invention revolutionized communication by introducing portability. Unlike earlier mobile phones tethered to cars due to power needs, Cooper's DynaTAC phone was handheld. This innovation paved the way for the development of cellular systems that allowed users to communicate on the go, with advancements leading to smaller, lighter devices and enhanced data services.
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What company did Martin Cooper work for when he invented the mobile phone?
While inventing the first mobile cell phone, Martin Cooper worked for Motorola. In 1973, Cooper led a Motorola team that developed the first mobile phone, known as the DynaTAC. On April 3, 1973, Cooper made the first public cell phone call using the DynaTAC phone.
Motorola introduced the first portable cell phone for consumers, the DynaTAC 8000x, in 1983.
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What challenges did Martin Cooper face while creating the first mobile phone?
Martin Cooper faced several challenges while creating the first mobile phone. Motorola feared losing its mobile business to AT&T's car phone monopoly and tasked Cooper with developing a truly portable phone. Overcoming this, Cooper's team developed the DynaTAC, which weighed 1.1 kg and allowed only 35 minutes of talk time. In 1983, Motorola introduced the first portable cell phone for consumers, the DynaTAC 8000x, which was a success despite its \$3,995 price tag.
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How has Martin Cooper’s invention influenced modern technology and society today?
Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the father of the cellular phone, led the team that built the first mobile cell phone in 1972–73 and made the first cell phone call. Cooper's invention influenced modern technology and society by making wireless communication truly portable, not limited to car phones, and paving the way for the development of smartphones. The introduction of 3G mobile phone networks in 2001 allowed advanced services, such as Internet access, to become ubiquitous.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) is an American engineer who led the team that in 1972–73 built the first mobile cell phone and made the first cell phone call. He is widely regarded as the father of the cellular phone.
Cooper graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (1950). He joined the U.S. Navy and served during the Korean War. After the war, he joined the Teletype Corporation, and in 1954 he began working at Motorola. He earned a master’s in electrical engineering from IIT (1957). At Motorola, Cooper worked on many projects involving wireless communications, such as the first radio-controlled traffic-light system, which he patented in 1960, and the first handheld police radios, which were introduced in 1967. He later served as a vice president and director of research and development (1978–83) for the company.
Mobile telephones had been introduced by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1946. However, in a given area only 11 or 12 channels were available, so users often had to wait to use the system. Another weakness of the first mobile phones was that the large amount of power needed to run them could be supplied only by car batteries. Thus, there were no truly portable phones but only car phones.
In 1947 AT&T Bell Laboratories engineers W. Rae Young and Douglas H. Ring showed that more mobile users could be added by breaking down a large area into many smaller cells, but that required more frequency coverage than was then available. However, in 1968 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asked AT&T for a plan for employing a little-used portion of the UHF (ultrahigh frequency) television band. AT&T proposed a cellular architecture to expand its car-phone service.
Motorola did not want AT&T to have a monopoly on cell phones and feared the end of its mobile business. Cooper was placed in charge of the urgent project to develop a cell phone. He thought that the cell phone should not be chained to the car but should be portable. The result, the DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) phone, was 23 cm (9 inches) tall and weighed 1.1 kg (2.5 pounds). It allowed 35 minutes of talk before its battery ran down.
On April 3, 1973, Cooper introduced the DynaTAC phone at a press conference in New York City. To make sure that it worked before the press conference, he placed the first public cell phone call, to engineer Joel Engel, head of AT&T’s rival project, and gloated that he was calling from a portable cellular phone.
In 1983, after years of further development, Motorola introduced the first portable cell phone for consumers, the DynaTAC 8000x. Despite its price of $3,995, the phone was a success. That same year, Cooper left Motorola and founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. (CBSI), which became the leading company in billing cellular phone services. In 1986 he and his partners sold CBSI to Cincinnati Bell for $23 million, and he and his wife, Arlene Harris, founded Dyna, LLC. Dyna served as a central organization from which they launched other companies, such as ArrayComm (1996), which developed software for wireless systems, and GreatCall (2006), which provided wireless service for the Jitterbug, a cell phone with simple features meant for the elderly. Cooper received the Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering in 2013.
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