5
CHAPTER FIVE
Analogue systems
The first mobile phone syste ms to be launched were based on analogue technology. By today’s
standards the performance was limited, the phones were large, and initially the coverage was
poor. In addition to this, when the phone systems were first launched they were very expensive,
which limited them to business use. Nevertheless, these phone systems marked a major milestone
in telecommunications history. For their day they represented a major step forward in technology,
and they also established a market that grew well beyond the initial predictions. In fact, many
of these systems quickly ran out of capacity as a result of the demand as the numbers of
subscribers grew.
Around the world a number of different standards