Today it is difficult to imagine a modern person without a mobile phone, although only 25 years ago only the wealthiest citizens could afford to buy this device in Russia. According to TMT Consulting, at the end of 2015 there were 251.8 million cellular subscribers in Russia, which is 105.3 million more than the entire population of the country - one and a half mobile phones per person. Telephones have long ceased to be a luxury item. It is all the more interesting to look into the recent past, when mobile phones in Russia were considered exotic, and only a select few could talk to family and friends from different parts of the country.
A little history
The development of the first cell phone began in 1947 by the American company Bell Labs. The idea of such a device instantly captured the minds of leading engineers in the USA and Russia. Another American company interested in mobile phones is Motorola. In Russia, in 1957, engineer Leonid Ivanovich Kupriyanovich demonstrated the LK-1 portable telephone. It weighed 3 kg, worked no more than 30 hours, but provided a range of up to 30 km. In 1958, he presented a device weighing 500 g, and already in 1961 a telephone weighing only 70 g allegedly appeared. Only a photograph of this device of dubious quality has survived to this day, the development of which was either stopped or transferred to the special services (supporters of the theories dedicated to the conspiracy).
Instead of this revolutionary device, the Russians saw the Altai device, which could only be transported in a car, which was what the Ambulance employees used. Kupriyanovich's developments formed the basis for several Bulgarian devices produced in 1966 RAT-05, ATRT-05 and the RATC-10 base station, which were used at industrial facilities. In 1973, Motorola put an end to the battle for supremacy: Martin Cooper called Bell Labs from a phone that fit comfortably in his hand and did not require additional accessories. Motorola DynaTac, measuring 22.5 x 12.5 x 3.75 cm, weighed 1.15 kg, consisted of 2000 parts, and the battery charge was only enough for 20 minutes of conversation. It took another 10 years to finalize the mobile phone, and only on March 6, 1983, the phone, weighing 800 grams, went on sale for $3,500.
In Russia, the topic of commercial mobile communications was not raised until 1986. USSR Communications Minister Gennady Kudryavtsev said that the KGB and security forces considered accessible cellular communications a threat to national security. An epoch-making event was the call from Mikhail Gorbachev from Helsinki to Moscow in 1987 using a Nokia Mobira Cityman 900, the first phone for NMT networks. There were 5 years left before the release of the first GSM phone - it was the Nokia 1011 and it changed cellular communications forever.
Cellular.
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The most common type of mobile communication today is cellular communication. Cellular communication services are provided to subscribers by operator companies.
A network of base stations provides wireless communication to a cell phone.
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Each station provides access to the network in a limited area, the area and configuration of which depends on the terrain and other parameters. The overlapping coverage areas create a honeycomb-like structure; The term “cellular communication” comes from this image. When a subscriber moves, his phone is served by one or another base station, and the switching (cell change) occurs automatically, completely unnoticed by the subscriber, and does not in any way affect the quality of communication. This approach allows, using low-power radio signals, to cover large areas with a mobile communications network, which provides this type of communication, in addition to efficiency, also a high level of environmental friendliness.
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The operator company not only technically provides mobile communications, but also enters into economic relationships with subscribers who purchase from it a certain set of basic and additional services. Since there are quite a lot of types of services, prices for them are combined into sets called tariff plans. The cost of services provided to each subscriber is calculated by the billing system (a hardware and software system that keeps records of the services provided to the subscriber).
The operator's billing system interacts with similar systems of other companies, for example, those providing roaming services to the subscriber (the ability to use mobile communications in other cities and countries). The subscriber makes all mutual payments for mobile communications, including in roaming, with his operator, which is a single settlement center for him.
Roaming is access to mobile communication services outside the coverage area of the “home” operator’s network with which the subscriber has a contract.
While roaming, the subscriber usually retains his phone number and continues to use his cell phone, making and receiving calls in the same way as on the home network. All actions necessary for this, including inter-operator traffic exchange and attracting the resources of other communication companies (for example, providing transcontinental communications) as necessary, are carried out automatically and do not require additional actions from the subscriber. If the home and guest networks provide communication services in different standards, roaming is still possible: the subscriber can be given a different device for the duration of the trip, while maintaining his phone number and automatically routing calls.
Russian realities
The first call from Russia to the USA took place on September 9, 1991 within the walls using a Nokia Mobira MD 59 NB2 device using the NMT-450 communication standard. It was carried out by the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. The phone weighed about 3 kg, cost $4,000 (and $1,995 under the operator's contract), and a minute of conversation cost $1. Despite the high cost and size of the device, Delta managed to make 10,000 subscribers mobile in the first 4 years of operation.
Cellular communications reached Moscow only in 1992. Within a year, cellular communications became available to 5,000 Muscovites. Also in 1992, a new player, VimpelCom, appeared on the Russian market with the Beeline trademark. On July 12, 1992, the first call from the Motorola DynaTAC, popularly known as the “brick,” rang out at the company’s office.
At this time, the GSM network was launched in Germany, which quickly became a global standard. In Russia, the first operator to adopt GSM was MTS, which began commercial operation of the network in 1994. In the same year, the first call came from the office of the North-West GSM operator (now MegaFon), but it began commercial activities only in 1995.
According to Ericsson's Jan Vareby, the introduction of GSM networks allowed Russia to begin the development of cellular communications faster than many other countries, ahead of the founders of the standard.
Other mobile communication systems.
In addition to cellular communications, today there are other civil communication systems that also provide mobile communications via radio channels, but are built on different technical principles and are aimed at other subscriber terminals. They are less common than cellular communications, but are used when using cellular phones is difficult, impossible or economically unviable.
The DECT microcellular communication standard, which is used for communications in a limited area, is becoming increasingly popular. A DECT base station is capable of providing handsets (up to 8 of them can be serviced simultaneously) with each other, call forwarding, and access to the public telephone network. The potential of the DECT standard makes it possible to provide mobile communications within urban neighborhoods, individual companies or apartments. They turn out to be optimal in regions with low-rise buildings, whose subscribers only need voice communications and can do without mobile data transmission and other additional services.
In satellite telephony, base stations are located on satellites in low-Earth orbits. Satellites provide communications where the deployment of a conventional cellular network is impossible or unprofitable (at sea, in vast sparsely populated areas of tundra, deserts, etc.).
Trunking networks, which provide subscriber terminals (they are usually called not telephones, but radio stations) with communication within a certain territory, are systems of base stations (repeaters) that transmit radio signals from one terminal to another when they are significantly removed from each other. Since trunking networks usually provide communication to employees of departments (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ambulance, etc.) or at large technological sites (along highways, at construction sites, on the territory of factories, etc.), trunking terminals do not have entertainment capabilities and design delights in decoration.
Wearable radios communicate with each other directly, without intermediate communication systems. Mobile communications of this type are preferred by both government (police, fire brigade, etc.) and departmental structures (for communications within a warehouse complex, parking lot or construction site), and private individuals (mushroom pickers, fishermen or tourists), in situations , when it is easier and cheaper to use pocket radios to communicate with each other than cell phones (for example, in remote areas where there is no cellular network coverage).
Paging communication ensures the receipt of short messages to subscriber terminals - pagers. Currently, paging communications are practically not used in civil communications; due to their limitations, they are pushed into the field of highly specialized solutions (for example, they are used to notify personnel in large medical institutions, transmit data to electronic information boards, etc.).
Since 2004, a new subtype of mobile communication has become increasingly widespread, providing the possibility of high-speed data transmission over a radio channel (in most cases, the Wi-Fi protocol is used for this). Areas with Wi-Fi coverage available for public use (paid or free) are called hotspots. In this case, the subscriber terminals are computers - both laptops and PDAs. They can also provide two-way voice communication over the Internet, but this feature is used extremely rarely; the connection is mainly used to access the most common Internet services - email, websites, instant messaging systems (for example, ICQ), etc. .
The price of mobility
Not everyone could become the owner of a mobile phone. The average price of the device was $2,500, and the subscriber had to pay almost $2,500 more as a down payment and connection fee. For “only” $5000 you could become mobile and modern. But this was far from the end of the waste. Expensive subscription fees and the price of a minute of conversation forced subscribers to pay at least $200 monthly at the end of 1998. Now communication services with unlimited access to the Internet and messaging cost no more than $10. However, by the end of the 90s, about 20 million SIM cards were sold in the country, but the real boom happened in the early 2000s. There were about 30 million subscribers in the country already in 2003, and by 2010 their number had grown to 216 million. The reduction in the cost of cellular communications was facilitated by the release of increasingly affordable mobile phones, many of which became iconic: Nokia 3310, Siemens A52, Motorola C350, Samsung X100 , Sony Ericsson T610 and many others.
Mobile phones that reigned supreme in the 90s
There is a huge list of mobile phone models that are constantly being improved. Each, even the most modern phone model, has its own old progenitor, who stood at the origins of the birth of modern mobile masterpieces.
Motorola StarTAC (1996)
It became the first clamshell phone with all the properties that other phones did not yet have: light weight, small size, vibration alert.
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Siemens S10 (1997)
The first mobile phone with a color display and a built-in voice recorder.
Philips Spark (1997)
The first phone that lasted up to 350 hours without recharging and had two batteries. Philips Spark also had voice dialing.
Sony CMD-X1000 (1996)
One of the first phones released in the Slider form factor. Features include a sliding speaker and a retractable antenna. The address book could store up to 100 phone numbers.
Nokia 8110 (1996)
Single-band phone from a Finnish company. In Russia it received the nickname “banana”, thanks to its body. Users first saw this brand of phone in the movie “The Matrix.”
Nokia 7110 (WAP) (1999)
The first dual-band phone with a WAP browser. The phone, at that time, had the largest screen and a notebook for 1000 entries. For the first time, a wheel was used to navigate the menu, similar to a modern computer mouse. The device was turned on and off by moving the lid.
New generation communications
In 2003, Delta Telecom launched a 3G/CDMA200 network under the Sky Link brand, but a commercial network based on the EV-DO standard was ready only by 2005. In 2007, MegaFon built the first network based on 3G/UMTS, and already in 2008, all Big Three operators began developing 3G in the regions. The emergence of mobile phones like the Apple iPhone 3G with large touch screens and support for high-speed connections required an increase in the speed and capacity of networks for transmitting not only voice, but also photos or video images, and multimedia messages. In 2008, the first commercial WiMAX network in Russia was launched under the Yota brand, and the first device in the world that supported working in this network simultaneously with GSM was the HTC Max 4G. The rapid development of 4G LTE networks in Russia began at the end of 2011, and MegaFon became the first operator to provide new generation communications for subscribers.
From this moment the modern mobile history of Russia begins. Over the past 5 years, subscribers have begun to use the mobile Internet more actively, preferring communication via the Internet to regular calls. All modern smartphones have fast access to the network, and the most affordable phones with 4G support can be found at prices starting from 3,500 rubles in operator showrooms. A mobile phone has become as familiar and commonplace as an electric kettle. Cheaper production and the emergence of new players in the market are making mobile communications more accessible even to the most remote and poor corners of the world. 25 years ago it was impossible to imagine the scale of the spread of cellular communications in Russia, but what awaits us in another 25 years?
The first smartphone in Russia
Today's idea of cell phones inevitably correlates with the concept of “smartphone”. This word refers to a phone that has smart functions. Such devices are developing so quickly that in 2021 the smartphone serves as an Internet communicator, game console, TV receiver, camera and MP3 player.
Despite the fact that smartphones began to appear back in the 90s, the first such device in Russia was the Nokia N73. The device, released in 2006, gained incredible popularity among Russians. But again, not everyone used its full functionality. Most people were attracted to the Nokia N73 by its high price, indicating premium quality, as well as its interesting design.
The device was not a smartphone in the usual sense of the word, as it had buttons and was based on the Symbian operating system. But its functionality was very close to modern devices. After all, Nokia had a dual camera, had access to the Internet, and thanks to the large screen, it became a guide to the world of multimedia.
At the same time, at the present time the characteristics of the device look ridiculous:
- 1100 mAh battery;
- 2.4-inch screen with a resolution of 240x320;
- main camera 3.2 MP;
- 4 MB RAM;
- processor with a clock frequency of up to 220 MHz.
In a word, in the current realities, the Nokia N73 would be completely unclaimed. And this despite the fact that only 14 years have passed since then.
