Read Online Constant Touch by Jon Agar - Free Book Online
Authors: Jon Agar
Tags: science, Internet, Telecommunications, engineering and technology, electronics and communications, telephone and wireless technology, mobile telephones
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provided with the appropriate equipment, can also call on-shore telephones. There is, however, no arrangement for private persons to fit radio in their own vessels or vehicles for communication with the public telephone network. The prospect of starting such a service in the United Kingdom in the present state of technical knowledge in the radio field are nil. There is no room in the radio frequency spectrum.
Actually the Dukeâs car phone could have been connected to the public telephone system â experiments hadproven this capability, but the Duke had baulked at the cost. While it was âPost Office policy to refuse the connection of radio calls from privately operated services (which include those established by police, fire, and public utility organisations) because of the difficulty of maintaining the necessary standard of transmissionâ, an exception could be made for a person of appropriate social standing. In the mid-1950s, if you were the husband of the Queen then you could have a mobile telephone connection to the public telephone network. But if you were a mere Marquess you could go whistle.
But, aside from the finer points of social rank, the Post Officeâs reply also illustrates the typical sentiments of a public telecoms monopoly. It looked inward, rather than outward. The Post Office was more concerned to preserve the integrity of the network than to be led by â or even concede to â customer demands. Early users of mobile radio in Britain included the travelling car-repair services (such as the Automobile Association or the Royal Automobile Club), taxi firms (particularly in the capital, such as RadioCabs (London) Ltd), and industrial companies whose facilities were dispersed widely and in far-flung places (such as Esso Petroleum Ltd). Even banded together to form the Mobile Radio Usersâ Association, they were powerless against the might of the public telecoms monopoly. In 1954, for example, the mobile users were kicked off theirfrequencies because the government wanted to create room in the spectrum for the commercial rival to the BBC, ITV. The Post Office consistently (with few exceptions, not least the case of the Queenâs husband) refused to consider connection of mobile radio to the telephone network. By 1968, when, against two decades of Post Office disinterest, there were 6,100 private mobile systems licensed, a total of about 74,000 stations altogether, and a growth rate of 17 per cent per year, the official attitude was still that the integrity of the telephone network was paramount and any interconnection of the noisy, anarchic mobile radio to the state-owned system could barely be countenanced: âThe policy of refusing connection of private mobile systems to the public network has lasted nearly 20 years. From the [official] point of view the argument for maintaining this refusal is as strong as ever.â
The London Radiophone Service was launched by a call from the Postmaster General (the government minister responsible for post and telecommunications) to the TV presenter Richard Dimbleby. The service was not a cellular system but allowed callers to connect to the public telephone network via an operator at the Tate Gallery Telephone Exchange and base stations at Kelvedon Hatch (near Brentwood, north-east of London), Bedmond (near Kingâs Langley, north of London) and Beulah Hill (in Croydon, South London). (BT Archives)
Actually, by the mid-1960s the Post Office had begun, reluctantly, to change its policy on interconnection. An experimental South Lancashire Radiophone Service had begun around Manchester, Liverpool and Preston in 1959. In 1965, an extremely exclusive and expensive service, called System 1, had been launched in the well-to-do Pimlico area of West London. It was used by the chauffeurs of diplomats and company chairmen. The radio set cost £350, the service cost over seven pounds a quarter year, and calls cost one shilling and
Actually the Dukeâs car phone could have been connected to the public telephone system â experiments hadproven this capability, but the Duke had baulked at the cost. While it was âPost Office policy to refuse the connection of radio calls from privately operated services (which include those established by police, fire, and public utility organisations) because of the difficulty of maintaining the necessary standard of transmissionâ, an exception could be made for a person of appropriate social standing. In the mid-1950s, if you were the husband of the Queen then you could have a mobile telephone connection to the public telephone network. But if you were a mere Marquess you could go whistle.
But, aside from the finer points of social rank, the Post Officeâs reply also illustrates the typical sentiments of a public telecoms monopoly. It looked inward, rather than outward. The Post Office was more concerned to preserve the integrity of the network than to be led by â or even concede to â customer demands. Early users of mobile radio in Britain included the travelling car-repair services (such as the Automobile Association or the Royal Automobile Club), taxi firms (particularly in the capital, such as RadioCabs (London) Ltd), and industrial companies whose facilities were dispersed widely and in far-flung places (such as Esso Petroleum Ltd). Even banded together to form the Mobile Radio Usersâ Association, they were powerless against the might of the public telecoms monopoly. In 1954, for example, the mobile users were kicked off theirfrequencies because the government wanted to create room in the spectrum for the commercial rival to the BBC, ITV. The Post Office consistently (with few exceptions, not least the case of the Queenâs husband) refused to consider connection of mobile radio to the telephone network. By 1968, when, against two decades of Post Office disinterest, there were 6,100 private mobile systems licensed, a total of about 74,000 stations altogether, and a growth rate of 17 per cent per year, the official attitude was still that the integrity of the telephone network was paramount and any interconnection of the noisy, anarchic mobile radio to the state-owned system could barely be countenanced: âThe policy of refusing connection of private mobile systems to the public network has lasted nearly 20 years. From the [official] point of view the argument for maintaining this refusal is as strong as ever.â
The London Radiophone Service was launched by a call from the Postmaster General (the government minister responsible for post and telecommunications) to the TV presenter Richard Dimbleby. The service was not a cellular system but allowed callers to connect to the public telephone network via an operator at the Tate Gallery Telephone Exchange and base stations at Kelvedon Hatch (near Brentwood, north-east of London), Bedmond (near Kingâs Langley, north of London) and Beulah Hill (in Croydon, South London). (BT Archives)
Actually, by the mid-1960s the Post Office had begun, reluctantly, to change its policy on interconnection. An experimental South Lancashire Radiophone Service had begun around Manchester, Liverpool and Preston in 1959. In 1965, an extremely exclusive and expensive service, called System 1, had been launched in the well-to-do Pimlico area of West London. It was used by the chauffeurs of diplomats and company chairmen. The radio set cost £350, the service cost over seven pounds a quarter year, and calls cost one shilling and
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