1960s Mobile Phone

I've been watching quite a bit of ME TV and Antenna TV and with having the opportunity to see some great 1960s/1970s tech on the television programs they carry.   Here is a fine example - while this might not be the exact unit that you would see Cannon using, this is one very cool looking mobile phone.

Now this brings me to my students, who seem to feel that the 1960s were the dark ages or even a time when woolly mammoths roamed the planet.   Apparently, there were no mobile phones, televisions were a rarity and only a few folks had land line phones.

So here is a 1964 Bell System CC56 IMTS mobile phone.  What is the IMTS?  It is the Improved Mobile Telephone System and in 1964 with more than 1.5 MILLION subscribers.

Interested in reading about the history of mobile phones? http://www.privateline.com/archive/TelenorPage_022-034.pdf