The mobile evolution

2009  Telecommunications contributes 374 billion euros to Europe's GDP. By 2013, this will grow to 512 billion euros, 3.7% of Europe's GDP. (CEBR Research, December 2008.)

2008  The worldwide cellular subscriber base will reach 3.75 billion by the end of 2008 (Mobile Data Association).
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2007  In 2007, there were more mobiles than people in Europe, with 478.4 million mobile phones in use.
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2007, January  The global music industry trade body, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or the IFPI, reports global digital music sales almost doubled in 2006 to around $2 billion, or around 10% of all sales.

2007, January - New Year's Day  Text messaging figures reach a record breaking 214 million, almost 9 million per hour and the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

2006, July  Ringtones are now worth more than the UK market for CD singles.

2006, July  FIFA World Cup - England v Portugal, 140 million messages sent. England's World Cup Campaign encouraged fans to notch up record figures for text messaging.
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2006, February  O2 is acquired by Telefónica, S.A.
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2006  The GSM announces 2 billion mobile users.

2005, December  New industry content standards, mainly to protect children, signed or implemented in the UK, Ireland and Germany.
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2005, December  Mobile gaming in Asia/Pacific is successfully established, with revenues reaching $1.56 billion in 2005. It is estimated mobile gaming in Asia/Pacific will reach $4.4 billion in 2010.

2005, October  O2 becomes the first UK network operator to officially adopt the high-speed mobile broadband technology HSDPA (superfast 3G) on the Isle of Man.

2005, September  O2’s mobile TV trials go live in Oxford, UK.

2005, July  37,730,767 page impressions are generated on O2 Active. The most ever recorded on one day.
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2005, April  O2 Airwave delivers UK national police communications service and wins Ambulance contract.

2004, May  James Trusler, 30, breaks the world speed texting record.
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2004  The GSM A announces 1 billion mobile users.

2003, December  Users begin to personalise their ringtones. Approximately £70 million is spent on ringtones in 2003.

2003, March  MMS (Multi-media messaging) is launched by various operators across Europe. This enables pictures to be sent via camera-phones.

2003, March  ‘3’ is the first to offer 3G services in the UK.

2002, May  Launch of the O2 consumer brand in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland.

2002, January  Nokia launches its first camera phone, the 7650, at £350.

2001, December  Europe’s first 3G network goes live on the Isle of Man, operated by Manx Telecom.

2001, November  BT’s mobile businesses are de-merged and begin trading under the corporate umbrella of mmO2 plc.

2001, August  Text messages take off with Britons sending on average, 1 billion messages a month.

2000, June  First commercial GPRS services and handsets are launched. When using GPRS, charges are based on the volume of data sent and received. You can access around 1000 WAP pages for each megabyte (MB).

2000–2004  Number of minutes spent making mobile calls in the UK almost doubles to 62.0 billion.

2000  Frenzied bidding war takes place for 3G licences.
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1999  BT Cellnet’s first GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) call over a live network.
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1999  Text-messaging volumes grow with the launch of InterConnect (customers can send and receive full messages to any user on any other UK mobile phone network). UK text volumes reach 1.0 billion.

1997  9.1 million Britons use mobiles.

1994  Launch of digital GSM. For the latest GSM news.
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1993  First truly portable GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handsets are launched.

1993  International roaming begins to take off.

1992  First text message was sent in December from a Personal Computer (PC) to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network based within the UK.

Early 1990’s  Mobile etiquette standards published by Cellnet in the UK. Access the latest mobile etiquette standards.
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1987  Nokia man. 75,000 Britons own mobile phones.
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1985  First UK mobile licenses granted to Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio (TSCR) and Racal Vodafone.

1983  Margaret Thatcher makes the first UK mobile phone call on a private use dedicated mobile network. At this time used mostly as in-car phones, analogue phones, typically cost £2,000 per unit to buy.

1978  Bell Labs and AT&T roll-out an analogue based cellular telephone service. Ten cells, covering 21,000 square miles, made up the Chicago system.

1965  AT&T installs the world's first electronic telephone switch (special purpose computer) in a local telephone exchange, Succasunna, NJ.

1950  Mobile phones, due to their large battery sizes, are installed in vehicles.
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1947  Bell Labs (formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories) innovation company conceives the idea of re-using radio frequencies among hexagonal "cells".
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1909  The first successful transatlantic radio signal is received, after being sent from England to Newfoundland, two years earlier.

1895  Guglielmo Marconi sends and receives the first radio signal in Italy.

1876  Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call.
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1837  Samuel Morse applies for patent on a new invention, the electric telegraph.