This week saw the 13th anniversary of the mobile phone network being switched on in Dubbo. My business had the privilege of enabling the very first connection.

I had started my first electronics business the previous year but it was on a trip to the Adelaide Grand Prix in November 1989 that school friend, Daryl Coxon, told me all about this new concept of mobiles. He said there was probably a market in it for me.

Now, with almost 80,000 mobile phone sales under my belt, I think Daryl was right!

In August 1981, Telecom Australia launched the Public Automatic Mobile Phone System (PAMTS) with three towers in Melbourne.

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The mobile numbers started with 007 which seemed appropriate for the peak of 14,000 subscribers as the entire concept seemed like something from the movies. This system was shut down in 1993.

The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was switched on in February 1987.

Most of the early models were installed in vehicles with the option of a portable 'bag phone' or a too-big-to-fit-in-your-hand handheld version. This 1G network was shut down in September 2000. The first phone I sold was an NEC P3 handheld with a phone number of 018 63 62 62. Optus and Vodafone entered the Australian market in 1992 and the three carriers had a combined peak of 2.6 million analogue subscribers.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) was switched on in April 1993 and enjoyed a twenty-five year life and a peak of 15.9 million users. This was 2G and was our first 'digital' system.

While the service offered additional features, such as text messaging, the range wasn't as extensive as AMPS. CDMA offered range similar to analogue with services similar to digital. It was introduced in September 1999 and reached a peak of 1.8 million subscribers before being closed down in July 2012.

As data services became more important, the search for speed led to the 3G network. It was turned on in Australia in April 2003 and was a preview of how our phone usage would start to change. The 3G network is slated for shut down in Australia in 2024.

After the BlackBerry and then the debut of the iPhone in 2007, the pressure of data traffic led to the launch of the 4G network in September 2011. This is still the network that most Australians are using today...until they buy their new phone to take advantage of the increased speed and reduced latency offered by the 5G network which launched in May 2019. We currently have over 30 million combined active mobile services in Australia.

It has been an exciting journey to witness the introduction of a range of services at the coal face over those last thirty years.

Tell me when you started using your first mobile - and the model - at ask@techtalk.digital.

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