Creating cellular: A history of the AMPS project (1971-1983) [History of Communications]

I have attempted in this brief history to capture the rich mix of technical and political challenges that shaped the development of the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), the first cellular system in the United States, between 1971 and 1983. Earlier work was described in an article written for this column by Joel Engel [1]. I have also written a more detailed and personal view of these events within a manuscript titled Cellular Dreams and Cordless Nightmares; Life at Bell Laboratories in Interesting Times, which is available for download from http://www.winlab.rutgers. edu/~frenkiel/dreams [2].