that moment in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell shouted, “Mr. Watson-come here-I want to see you.”
To Cooper, the event was significant because he placed the first cell phone call to Dr. Joel Engell, the head of research at AT&T’s Bell Labs. Cooper’s call was intended as a gibe, in the grand tradition of U.S. upstarts, and it was aimed at the guy who was running a huge R&D program for what was then the largest company in the world. The young turks from Motorola were questioning what was then AT&T’s monopoly in communications, Cooper says, but what they really wanted to challenge was AT&T insistence that cellular phones be developed only for use in automobiles.
After dialing Engell’s phone number on the 2.5-pound Motorola Dyna-Tac (a beige phone that resembled a handheld Motorola walkie-talkie from World War II) Cooper recalls saying: “Joel, I’m calling you from a cellular phone. But it’s a real cellular phone. It’s not in a car.”
To Engell, the call made that day also might count as the world’s first wireless prank call. Cooper says he’s had several conversations with Engell since then—“and he doesn’t remember a thing about it.”
It has been almost 36 years since then, and Cooper’s vision of a personal and portable mobile phone has been realized. Cooper guided much of the development himself in the 29 years he spent at Motorola, ultimately heading all research and development for the company.
As for all the advances that make it possible to transmit video and download songs onto cell phones, Cooper says, “We’re just scratching the surface.”
“There are 3 billion people on this planet who have cell phones and all almost all of them do is talk,” Cooper said. “Some small subset of them do text messaging and the number that downloads songs and do online navigation is infinitesimal.” Apple has sold about 12 million iPhones, but Marty Cooper is not impressed. He says, “I don’t know how you put a yawn down on a piece of paper.”
Cooper anticipates the advent of Google’s Android operating system will accelerate a wireless revolution in the development of “open access” wireless networks. Just as anyone can connect a device running any type of operating system to the Internet, Cooper sees a future in which any type of wireless device that uses any type of operating system will be able to connect to any wireless network. “In order for that to happen, the carriers have to open up their networks, and it’s a major challenge to do that.”
Whatever happens next, the vision that Cooper embraced almost 36 years ago has made it possible for guys like Rio in Pittsburgh to use wireless technology to embellish his NFL trash talk. My daughter loved it.
