Internet Fax Glossary: Radio Telephones

Mobile radio telephone systems preceded modern cellular mobile telephony technology. Since they were the predecessors of the first generation of cellular telephones, these systems are sometimes retroactively referred to as 0G (zero generation) systems. Technologies used in 0G systems included the PTT (Push to Talk or manual), MTS (Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service), and AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System) systems.

These early mobile telephone systems can be distinguished from earlier closed radiotelephone systems in that they were available as a commercial service that was part of the public switched telephone network, with their own telephone numbers, rather than part of a closed network such as a police radio or taxi dispatch system.

These mobile telephones were usually mounted in cars or trucks, though briefcase models were also made. Typically, the transceiver (transmitter-receiver) was mounted in the vehicle trunk and attached to the "head" (dial, display, and handset) mounted near the driver seat.

They were sold through WCCs (Wireline Common Carriers, AKA telephone companies), RCCs (Radio Common Carriers), and two-way radio dealers. The primary users were loggers, construction foremen, realtors, and celebrities.

Early examples for this technology:
- Motorola in conjunction with the Bell System operated the first commercial mobile telephone service MTS in the US in 1946, as a service of the wireline telephone company.
- First automatic system was the Bell System's IMTS which became available in 1962, offering automatic dialing to and from the mobile.
- The Televerket opened its first manual mobile telephone system in Norway in 1966. Norway was later the first country in Europe to get an automatic mobile telephone system.
- The Autoradiopuhelin (ARP) launched in 1971 in Finland as the country's first public commercial mobile phone network.
- The B-Netz launched 1972 in West Germany as the country's second public commercial mobile phone network (but the first one that did not require human operators to connect calls).