From Car Phones To Verizon Cell Phones

The car phone is a mobile device that is designed to work in automobiles and only automobiles. The car phone was more popular than cellular phones - Verizon Cell Phones, Alltel Cell Phones, you name it - in the 1970's and 1980's. However in the 1990's, during the first cell phone boom, the mobile devices such as Verizon Cell Phones became much more affordable and consequently the popular of the car phone dwindled. The necessity of the automobile phone also plummeted as now people were able to carry their cell phone with them, anywhere they go, including the car.

In Finland, the first car phone service, now known as the 0G, or Zero Generation car phone, was available. It was known as Car Radiophone service. In 1982 the 0G car phone service was succeeded by the 1G service called Nordic Mobile Telephone. This was used across Scandinavia and often in very remote areas. In North America, the first car phone service used the Mobile Telephone Service (MTS) before giving way to analog cellular service (AMPS) in 1984. In 2008 the AMPS technology was discontinued in the United States.

Despite being pushed to verge of technological extinction by cell phones like Alltel Cell Phones, the phone for cars still serves a purpose in many rural and undeveloped areas. That is because the car phone uses a high-powered transmitter and an external antenna as opposed to the satellite technology that would render any cell phone such as Verizon Cell Phones out of service.

Today there are still a few car phones on the market. This includes the Nokia 810 as well as the Motorola VC6096 for use with GSM networks. In addition, Motorola provides customers with the m800 and the m900 car phones that use CDMA and GSM technology, respectively. The car phones of today feature color screens and support high speed data connections as well as the ability to access SIM Cards stored in other phones, all through Bluetooth technology.

Today the car phone seems like such an anomaly. Why use a phone for your car when you can use a cell phone anywhere you like. It is like landlines with even less use as landlines still work well for those who stay at home as well as businesses. However the fact that a car phone can outperform a cell phone in middle of nowhere situations does give it a niche to work with and therefore stay on the market. We do, as a society, forget that there are rural land owners and farmers that would find this technology very helpful, especially in poor weather.