The First Automatic Mobile Phone Network Opens
- Date
- 1981
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- Europe (Sweden)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
The world's first automatic cellular mobile-phone network opened in 1981, laying the groundwork for the wireless communications that would later reach billions.
On 1 October 1981 the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system began commercial service in Sweden and Norway, developed jointly by the Nordic countries' state telecom administrations. Unlike earlier car-phone schemes that required manual switchboard operators, NMT let subscribers dial calls automatically and, crucially, roam seamlessly between coverage areas and across national borders, an early vision of the cross-border mobile network. Denmark and Finland joined in 1982. Built on analogue "first-generation" technology, the system was bulky and expensive, its handsets typically mounted in cars, but it proved the commercial and technical viability of mass mobile telephony. NMT's open, cooperative standard influenced later pan-European efforts and helped Nordic firms such as Ericsson and Nokia become world leaders in mobile equipment. The network marked the practical beginning of the mobile era, a technology that would within two decades transform communication, commerce and daily life across the planet.
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Empires active in 1981
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE – 1992 CE
Related science, technology & invention events
- Global eradication of smallpox declared8 May 1980 (last natural case 1977)
- The Apple II Launches the Personal Computer Era1977
- Intel Releases the 4004, the First Commercial Microprocessor1971
- Apollo 11 Moon landing20 July 1969 (mission 16–24 July 1969)
- CERN releases the World Wide Web into the public domain30 April 1993
- Green Revolution Transforms South Asian Agriculturec. 1966 (peak adoption mid-1960s onward)
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
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