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A mobile phone operator, wireless provider, or carrier is a mobile telecommunications company that provides wireless Internet GSM services for mobile device users. The operator gives a SIM card to the customer who inserts it into the mobile device to gain access to the service. There are two types of mobile operators: * a mobile network operator (MNO) which owns the underlying network and spectrum assets required to run the service. * a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) which buys wholesale service from an MNO and sells on to its own customers. (and for years before), the world's largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 835 million mobile subscribers. Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators had at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009. In February 2010, there were 4.6 billion mobile subscribers, a number that is estimated to grow. Total mobile‐cellular subscriptions reached almost 6 billion by end 2011, corresponding to a global penetration of 86% .


History

Prior to 1973, cellular mobile device technology was limited to devices installed in cars and other vehicles. The first fully automated telephone calling system for vehicles was launched in Sweden in 1960, called MTA (mobile telephone system A). Calls from the car were direct dial, whereas incoming calls required an operator to determine which base station the device was currently at. In 1962, an upgraded version called ''Mobile System B (MTB)'' was introduced. In 1971, the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success. The network remained open until 1983 and still had 600 customers when it closed. In 1958, development began on a similar service in the USSR, the Altay system for motorists. In 1963, the service started in Moscow, and by 1970, was deployed in 30 cities across the USSR. Versions of the Altay system are still in use today as a trunking system in some parts of Russia. In 1959 a private telephone company located in Brewster, Kansas, USA, the S&T Telephone Company, (still in business today) with the use of Motorola radio telephone equipment and a private tower facility, offered to the public cellular telephone services in that local area of NW Kansas. In 1966, Bulgaria presented the pocket mobile automatic telephone RAT-0,5 combined with a base station RATZ-10 (RATC-10) on Interorgtechnika-66 international exhibition. One base station, connected to one telephone wire line, could serve up to six customers. One of the first successful public commercial
mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...
networks was the ARP network in
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
, launched in 1971. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...
researcher and executive, made the first analog mobile phone call using a heavy prototype model. He called Dr.
Joel S. Engel Joel Stanley Engel (born February 4, 1936) is an American electrical engineer who made fundamental contributions to the development of cellular networks. Born in New York City, he obtained a B.Sc. in engineering at City College of New York (1957) ...
of
Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
. The first commercially automated
cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically th ...
(the 1G generation) was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. The initial launch network covered the full metropolitan area of Tokyo's over 20 million inhabitants with a cellular network of 23 base stations. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nationwide 1G network. Several other countries also launched 1G networks in the early 1980s including the UK,
Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
and Canada. In the 1990s, the 'second generation' ( 2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the GSM standard. In 1991, the first GSM network ( Radiolinja) launched in
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
. American and Canadian wireless providers tend to subsidize phones for consumers but tend to require 2 or 3-year contracts, while Asian and European providers sell the phone at full cost while the monthly fees charged are lower.


See also

*
Mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the ...
* List of mobile network operators * Mobile virtual network operator *
Telephone company A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
*
List of telephone operating companies This list identifies the fixed line operators and the mobile operators for the top 200 most populous countries in the world. The list of countries and their populations is from List of countries by population. The CIA World Factbook is cited a ...


References

{{Telecommunications Mobile technology