SAN JOSE, Calif.-The wireless industry today can take a minute to pat itself on the back as it looks back exactly 30 years ago to the very first time a call was placed using a portable cellular phone.
Indeed, the call was made by then Motorola Inc. general manager Martin Cooper, who set the tone for the competitive business by dialing up rival AT&T Bell Labs.
“Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire,” Cooper said. “It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973.”
Cooper is still in wireless as the chairman and chief executive officer of ArrayComm Inc., which builds smart antennas.
