car phone

AEG 4015C telephone for the German B Network ca. 1979

A car phone is a mobile phone device specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile. The car phone was once, in the late 1970s and 1980s, more popular than the regular mobile phone. However, since the mobile phone boom in the 1990s, when mobile phones became much more affordable, the car phone has suffered, as most people carry their mobile phone around with them, including in the car. Plus, hands free kits are now installed into many cars, so that the driver can talk and listen to a call while driving.

The original car phone service might now be called a 0G (zeroth-generation) service, where 1G (first-generation) is thought of as the beginning of modern cellular telephone service. In Finland, car phone service was first available in 1971 on the zero-generation ARP (Autoradiopuhelin, or Car Radiophone) service. This was succeeded in 1982 by the 1G system NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), used across Scandinavia and in other often remote areas. In North America, car phone typically used the Mobile Telephone Service (MTS), which was first used in St. Louis, or Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS) before giving way to analog cellular service (AMPS) in 1984. AMPS technology was discontinued in the United States in 2008.

Since a traditional car phone uses a high-power transmitter and external antenna, it is ideal for rural or undeveloped areas where mobile handsets may not work well or at all. However, due to current US Federal Communications Commission regulations, carriers must pay penalties for activating any equipment that is not an E911 compliant device, such as analog.

Recent trends

There were a few car phones available as of 2008^[update], including the Nokia 810 and more recently the Motorola VC6096 for use with GSM networks and a car phone made by NAL Research for the Iridium satellite network. Motorola provides US customers with the m800 and m900 car phones, for use with CDMA and GSM networks respectively. Modern car phones have colour screens and support high speed data connections as well as the ability to access SIM cards stored in other phones via Bluetooth.

Recently, some automobiles feature integrated, "hands-free" systems to utilize a consumer's cellular phone, via a Bluetooth wireless link or use an integrated transceiver. The systems use an internally mounted microphone, and the car's audio system, and may feature voice activation and control.^[1][2]

See also

• Carphone warehouse
• Teleaid, automatic emergency call system
• OnStar, emergency notification system

References