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By Natasha Lomas, 11 August 2009 14:30

NEWS

H is for History

Today the term 'wireless' is a loose one, covering a diverse range of technologies - from mobile phone networks and wi-fi to WiMax and LTE.

The history of wireless is littered with exotically named physicists and inventors all playing their part in the development of the communications landscape - but there remains controversy over who invented wireless telephony.

In 1888, experimental physicist Heinrich Hertz built apparatus capable of receiving electromagnetic waves and thereby confirmed their existence.

However Hertz, who lends his name to the measure of radio frequency, did not envisage any practical applications for his discovery, so it was left to others to pick up the baton and take the technology forward, including radio pioneers Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla.

While Tesla was awarded the first basic patent for radio, in 1897 Marconi sent the first ever wireless communication over a few kilometres of open sea - a message asking "Are you ready?" By the start of the 20th century he was able to send the first transatlantic transmission, using kite-supported antenna, demonstrating that radiowaves could indeed travel thousands of kilometres.

With Marconi making such public waves the US Patent Office reversed its decision in his favour and awarded the patent to him. However, in the mid-20th century, the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla as the patent holder and he is now recognised as the inventor of radio (for more on Tesla see J is for Juice).

Patent disputes also surround the invention of the telephone - with both Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray submitting patent applications on the same date: Valentine's day,1876. Bell's application prevailed, despite apparently arriving hours later than Gray's.

Bell is credited with making the first proper telephone call, on 10 March 1876, asking his assistant Thomas Watson to "come here".

When it comes to mobile technology the story is similarly complex, with developments taking place in different countries at various times although the concept of cellular tech as we know it today kicked off in 1940s US, with Bell Labs' idea of a network of cell sites (base stations) that hand off calls to one another conceived in 1947.

Their idea was for multiple low-power transmitters spread throughout a city in a hexagonal grid with automatic hand-off between cells - the foundation of the modern mobile network. However, Bell Labs had to wait until the 1960s for technology to catch up with their vision and even then, in the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not approve the overall concept - and allocate frequencies to make it possible - until the 1980s.

The brick-like Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercial mobile handset, gaining FCC approval in 1983.

However Europe set up the first commercial public mobile network called ARP and launched in Finland in 1971. Early mobiles used on ARP were so big they needed a car to carry them around, with the phone filling the car boot and a handset wired up front next to the driver.

Today there are now more than four billion mobile connections globally - a massive number that is only set to rise, while Ericsson predicts there will be 50 billion connections by 2020 as mobile connectivity is embedded not just into mobiles but everyday items.

Wi-fi or wireless LAN is a more recent phenomenon. The original version of the standard IEEE 802.11 was released in 1997. Vic Hayes, an electrical engineer by training, set up and oversaw the IEEE standards group for wireless LAN (aka 802.11) in the 1990s - and has thus been dubbed the father of wi-fi.