Was there a mobile connection in the USSR?
This question may seem strange to many, especially from the generation, for which mobile communication is strongly associated with a plastic box with a large color screen, a bunch of buttons and such buzzwords as GPRS, WAP, 3G. Where in the Cursed Scoop (s) could take a mobile connection?
Well, first of all, what is mobile communication in general? What is the definition of this term?
Mobile communication is a radio communication between subscribers, the location of one or several of which changes.
')
Mobile communications can be cellular, trunking, satellite plus personal radio call systems and zonal SMRS (fixed channel via repeater).
In other words, cellular communication (although this term is probably also not familiar to all users of this type of communication) is just a type of a broader concept - mobile communication. Moreover, it appeared much later than the first mobile radio systems in general.
In the world, the first mobile communication systems appeared even after the First World War. So in 1921 in the United States began to use the first radio police cars. But the mobile communication of that time was almost completely used in highly specific forms, primarily military, police, and all kinds of specialized services. They had no access to public telephone networks, they were not automatic, so this period can be skipped.
The first mobile communication systems for ordinary consumers began to appear after the Second World War. However, these were also quite limited in system capabilities. The communication was one-sided (simplex), that is, in the image of military radio stations - I pressed the PTT switch - you say, let go - you listen. And the choice of a free radio channel with the subsequent connection to the land telephone network was completely manual. The presence of a control room with telephone ladies and a manual switch was an indispensable attribute of such systems.
Those who remember the French film of the 60s "Razin" can remember the episode when the hero Louis de Funes spoke on such a "mobile phone" from his car. "Hello, young lady, give Smolny!".
It follows a simple conclusion. The process of a call from a mobile phone must be indistinguishable from a call from a regular phone. That is what will be the criterion of a widespread mobile communication network.
So, the world's first fully automatic mobile communication system was created and put into operation in the Soviet Union. And for several years the USSR was the world leader in the field of mobile communications.
Altai. First in the world.
Work on the automatic mobile communications system, called "Altai", began in 1958. In the city of Voronezh, in the Voronezh Research and Development Institute of Communication (VNIIS) subscriber stations were created (in other words, the actual telephones) and base stations to communicate with them. Antenna systems were developed at the Moscow State Specialized Design Institute (GSPI), in the same place where Soviet television was born. Over the other components of the "Altai" worked Leningraders, and later joined by companies from Belarus and Moldova. Specialists from different parts of the Soviet Union joined forces to create an absolutely unique product at that time - automatic mobile communications.
"Altai" was supposed to be a full-fledged phone installed in the car. It was simply possible to speak on it, as on a regular telephone (i.e., the sound passed in both directions simultaneously, the so-called duplex mode). To call another “Altai” or a regular phone, it was enough just to dial the number — just like on a desk phone, without any channel switching or talking to a dispatcher.
Implementing this opportunity at the then technical level was not easy. There is, of course, no digital connection; the voice was broadcast in the usual way. But, apart from the voice, it was necessary to transmit special signals, with the help of which the system could find a free radio channel, establish a connection, transmit the dialed telephone number, etc.
It now seems natural to us to simply dial the number on the buttons of the mobile phone. And in 1963, when the experimental zone of the Altai system was launched in Moscow, the real phone in the car made an indelible impression. The developers tried to make it as similar as possible to the usual devices: the Altai had a handset, and in some models even had a dial for dialing. However, the disc was soon abandoned and replaced with buttons, since turning the disc in the car turned out to be inconvenient.
Altai. Telephone 60s.
Party and economic leaders were delighted with the new system. Automobile telephones soon appeared in the “ZILs” and “Seagulls” of the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership. They were followed by the Volga directors of the most important enterprises.
“Altai” of course was not a full-fledged cellular system. Originally, one city along with the suburbs was served by only one base station with sixteen radio channels. But for a small number of top managers, who had mobile communication available, this was enough for the first time.
The system used a frequency range of 150 MHz - these are frequencies of the same order as the meter band of television. Therefore, the antenna installed on a high tower, allowed to provide communication at a distance of tens of kilometers.
A similar system in the United States, IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service), was launched in the pilot zone one year later. And its commercial launch took place only in 1969. Meanwhile, in 1970, the Altai was established in the USSR and was already successfully operating in about 30 cities!
By the way, about the IMTS system. In the description of this system there is one very interesting paragraph.
I translate:
The queues! Lists! Checks! Here it is, Damned Scoop (s) !!!
Of course, such tight restrictions were caused by a limited number of radio channels. But I specifically draw attention to this, so that readers would understand that such systems could not be massive for purely technical reasons, and not because of someone else's evil intent.
For this reason, the phones of this system were very expensive (from 2 to 4 thousand dollars) and a minute of conversation cost from 70 cents to 1.2 dollars. Often the phones were rented from the company and not bought.
IMTS telephone number. The beginning of the 70s.
And by the way, this system is still operated in Canada and the USA.
Now in Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Rostov, Kiev, Voronezh and many other cities (and oblasts) of the USSR, party and economic leaders could calmly talk on the phone from the car. Our country, however strange it may be to hear now, was confidently leading in the field of mobile communications.
In the 1970s, the Altai system was actively developed. New radio channels were allocated (22 “trunks” with 8 channels each) in the 330 MHz band - i.e. on slightly longer waves than decimeter television, which made it possible to provide a considerable range and at the same time serve more subscribers. Thanks to the use of the first microcircuits, the subscriber stations became more and more compact - although they nevertheless remained automobile (it was possible to carry the phone along with the batteries in a weighty suitcase).
By the mid-1970s, the geography of the distribution of the Altai system gradually expanded to 114 cities in the Soviet Union.
Special work on the modernization of equipment had to be carried out by the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Moreover, it was for the Olympics that the base station of the Altai moved to the Ostankino television tower. Prior to that, she occupied the two upper floors of a high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment.
At the Olympics-80, the connection of the modernized Altai-3M system was used very widely and showed itself from the best side. So, almost all the journalistic reports from the competition passed exactly through Altai. Soviet telecommunications operators became the winners of the Olympics, along with Soviet athletes; True, they did not get Olympic medals, but many leading developers received the State Prize of the USSR.
Altai 3M. Late 70s - 80s.
However, during the Olympics, the restrictions of "Altai" began to appear. Sometimes journalists complained about poor communication; engineers recommended them to rearrange the car a bit, and everything was getting better right away.
In total, by the beginning of the 80s, the number of Altai system subscribers was about 25 thousand.
In order for a telephone without wires to become widespread, further development of the system was required - in particular, the transition to the now familiar use of multiple base stations covering neighboring areas of the territory. And the Soviet engineers were quite ready for this development. Unfortunately, not everything depended only on this readiness.
A will that came too late.
In the early 1980s, specialists from VNIIS and other enterprises were ready to work on a new generation communication system. It received the name "Volemot" (short for the names of the cities where the developers were located: Voronezh, Leningrad, Molodechno, Ternopil). A feature of "Volemoto" was the ability to fully utilize a variety of base stations; during the conversation, it was possible to switch from one of them to another without losing the connection.
This function, now known as “handover” and allowing talk in motion without any problems, makes “Volemot” a full-fledged cellular connection. In addition, automatic roaming was supported: the Volemot device, registered in the network of one city, could be used in another. At the same time, the same 330 MHz band was used, and each base station could, if necessary, “cover” tens of square kilometers with communication.
Volemoto "could become a mass communication for rural areas, a" loyal friend "of collective farmers, summer residents and tourists. For this purpose it would fit better than Western cellular systems developed during the same period (AMPS, NMT), since it was easy to provide it work on a very vast territory. But to serve the many subscribers in a small area (in the city), the “Volemot” was inferior to AMPS and NMT, but further development, however, could solve this problem.
Mobile communication was quite possible to enter in the Soviet way of life, and in the communist ideology. Initially, telephones could, for example, be installed in villages and holiday villages for collective use and rented out at tourist clubs (for the duration of the hike). The service of the call from "Volemoto" could appear in long-distance trains or buses. And, of course, there was no threat to “state security” - mobile communication without encryption devices is very easy to listen to. Therefore, in the future, it could easily become accessible to all citizens of the country.
However, for several years for the “Volemot” project it was not possible to obtain the necessary funding and the development of the system was very slow. Meanwhile, cellular systems in the West actively developed and gained popularity. For the beginning - the middle of the 1980s, the previous leadership was lost.
“Volemot” was nevertheless completed by the end of the 1980s and was ready to begin deployment, but at that time the “process was already underway” and the possibility of catching up with Europe and the USA was no longer discussed.
Nevertheless, the system was launched in a number of cities in the early 90s and is still in effect, just like Altai. Today, their main positioning is professional communication for various services, from taxi to ambulance.
But despite this, full-fledged cellular communication had time to appear in the USSR. The first operator, Leningrad Delta Telecom, began its work on September 9, 1991, three and a half months before the collapse of the USSR. This means that work on its installation began six months or a year before this event, when events that followed in December in Belovezhskaya Pushcha were not predicted even by CIA analysts.
Something interesting. The first cell phones.
Mobile (or rather, car!) Phone from Nokia’s early 80s - the Mobira Senator. The weight of the device is 15 kilograms.
Mobira Talkman - the phone of the second half of the 80s - early 90s. Its weight is only 3 kg.
Motorola's first cell phone was the DynaTAC 8000X, released on March 6, 1983. Its development cost about 100 million dollars (at that time!).
The phone weighed 794 grams and had dimensions of 33x4.4x8.9 cm. The battery charge lasted for 1 hour or 8 hours in standby mode. He had a memory for 30 numbers and one melody.
This phone cost $ 3995. In the mobile market lasted 10 years.
In the network of the first in the US commercial cellular communication company Ameritech Mobile, the monthly fee was $ 50 plus one minute of conversation cost users from 24 to 40 cents (depending on the time of the call). A year after launch, there were 12,000 subscribers in its network.
via gray-croco.livejournal.com
UPD: Just do not put links to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones :)
Well, first of all, what is mobile communication in general? What is the definition of this term?
Mobile communication is a radio communication between subscribers, the location of one or several of which changes.
')
Mobile communications can be cellular, trunking, satellite plus personal radio call systems and zonal SMRS (fixed channel via repeater).
In other words, cellular communication (although this term is probably also not familiar to all users of this type of communication) is just a type of a broader concept - mobile communication. Moreover, it appeared much later than the first mobile radio systems in general.
In the world, the first mobile communication systems appeared even after the First World War. So in 1921 in the United States began to use the first radio police cars. But the mobile communication of that time was almost completely used in highly specific forms, primarily military, police, and all kinds of specialized services. They had no access to public telephone networks, they were not automatic, so this period can be skipped.
The first mobile communication systems for ordinary consumers began to appear after the Second World War. However, these were also quite limited in system capabilities. The communication was one-sided (simplex), that is, in the image of military radio stations - I pressed the PTT switch - you say, let go - you listen. And the choice of a free radio channel with the subsequent connection to the land telephone network was completely manual. The presence of a control room with telephone ladies and a manual switch was an indispensable attribute of such systems.
Those who remember the French film of the 60s "Razin" can remember the episode when the hero Louis de Funes spoke on such a "mobile phone" from his car. "Hello, young lady, give Smolny!".
It follows a simple conclusion. The process of a call from a mobile phone must be indistinguishable from a call from a regular phone. That is what will be the criterion of a widespread mobile communication network.
So, the world's first fully automatic mobile communication system was created and put into operation in the Soviet Union. And for several years the USSR was the world leader in the field of mobile communications.
Altai. First in the world.
Work on the automatic mobile communications system, called "Altai", began in 1958. In the city of Voronezh, in the Voronezh Research and Development Institute of Communication (VNIIS) subscriber stations were created (in other words, the actual telephones) and base stations to communicate with them. Antenna systems were developed at the Moscow State Specialized Design Institute (GSPI), in the same place where Soviet television was born. Over the other components of the "Altai" worked Leningraders, and later joined by companies from Belarus and Moldova. Specialists from different parts of the Soviet Union joined forces to create an absolutely unique product at that time - automatic mobile communications.
"Altai" was supposed to be a full-fledged phone installed in the car. It was simply possible to speak on it, as on a regular telephone (i.e., the sound passed in both directions simultaneously, the so-called duplex mode). To call another “Altai” or a regular phone, it was enough just to dial the number — just like on a desk phone, without any channel switching or talking to a dispatcher.
Implementing this opportunity at the then technical level was not easy. There is, of course, no digital connection; the voice was broadcast in the usual way. But, apart from the voice, it was necessary to transmit special signals, with the help of which the system could find a free radio channel, establish a connection, transmit the dialed telephone number, etc.
It now seems natural to us to simply dial the number on the buttons of the mobile phone. And in 1963, when the experimental zone of the Altai system was launched in Moscow, the real phone in the car made an indelible impression. The developers tried to make it as similar as possible to the usual devices: the Altai had a handset, and in some models even had a dial for dialing. However, the disc was soon abandoned and replaced with buttons, since turning the disc in the car turned out to be inconvenient.
Altai. Telephone 60s.
Party and economic leaders were delighted with the new system. Automobile telephones soon appeared in the “ZILs” and “Seagulls” of the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership. They were followed by the Volga directors of the most important enterprises.
“Altai” of course was not a full-fledged cellular system. Originally, one city along with the suburbs was served by only one base station with sixteen radio channels. But for a small number of top managers, who had mobile communication available, this was enough for the first time.
The system used a frequency range of 150 MHz - these are frequencies of the same order as the meter band of television. Therefore, the antenna installed on a high tower, allowed to provide communication at a distance of tens of kilometers.
A similar system in the United States, IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service), was launched in the pilot zone one year later. And its commercial launch took place only in 1969. Meanwhile, in 1970, the Altai was established in the USSR and was already successfully operating in about 30 cities!
By the way, about the IMTS system. In the description of this system there is one very interesting paragraph.
In the 70s, there have been a number of years for the mobile phone service. These are the potential subscribers.
I translate:
In the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, prior to the use of cellular communication, there were “waiting lists”, up to 3 years, for those who want to have a mobile connection. Potential subscribers were forced to wait until the existing subscribers disconnected from the network in order to receive a telephone number and mobile network services.
The queues! Lists! Checks! Here it is, Damned Scoop (s) !!!
Of course, such tight restrictions were caused by a limited number of radio channels. But I specifically draw attention to this, so that readers would understand that such systems could not be massive for purely technical reasons, and not because of someone else's evil intent.
For this reason, the phones of this system were very expensive (from 2 to 4 thousand dollars) and a minute of conversation cost from 70 cents to 1.2 dollars. Often the phones were rented from the company and not bought.
IMTS telephone number. The beginning of the 70s.
And by the way, this system is still operated in Canada and the USA.
Now in Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Rostov, Kiev, Voronezh and many other cities (and oblasts) of the USSR, party and economic leaders could calmly talk on the phone from the car. Our country, however strange it may be to hear now, was confidently leading in the field of mobile communications.
In the 1970s, the Altai system was actively developed. New radio channels were allocated (22 “trunks” with 8 channels each) in the 330 MHz band - i.e. on slightly longer waves than decimeter television, which made it possible to provide a considerable range and at the same time serve more subscribers. Thanks to the use of the first microcircuits, the subscriber stations became more and more compact - although they nevertheless remained automobile (it was possible to carry the phone along with the batteries in a weighty suitcase).
By the mid-1970s, the geography of the distribution of the Altai system gradually expanded to 114 cities in the Soviet Union.
Special work on the modernization of equipment had to be carried out by the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Moreover, it was for the Olympics that the base station of the Altai moved to the Ostankino television tower. Prior to that, she occupied the two upper floors of a high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment.
At the Olympics-80, the connection of the modernized Altai-3M system was used very widely and showed itself from the best side. So, almost all the journalistic reports from the competition passed exactly through Altai. Soviet telecommunications operators became the winners of the Olympics, along with Soviet athletes; True, they did not get Olympic medals, but many leading developers received the State Prize of the USSR.
Altai 3M. Late 70s - 80s.
However, during the Olympics, the restrictions of "Altai" began to appear. Sometimes journalists complained about poor communication; engineers recommended them to rearrange the car a bit, and everything was getting better right away.
In total, by the beginning of the 80s, the number of Altai system subscribers was about 25 thousand.
In order for a telephone without wires to become widespread, further development of the system was required - in particular, the transition to the now familiar use of multiple base stations covering neighboring areas of the territory. And the Soviet engineers were quite ready for this development. Unfortunately, not everything depended only on this readiness.
A will that came too late.
In the early 1980s, specialists from VNIIS and other enterprises were ready to work on a new generation communication system. It received the name "Volemot" (short for the names of the cities where the developers were located: Voronezh, Leningrad, Molodechno, Ternopil). A feature of "Volemoto" was the ability to fully utilize a variety of base stations; during the conversation, it was possible to switch from one of them to another without losing the connection.
This function, now known as “handover” and allowing talk in motion without any problems, makes “Volemot” a full-fledged cellular connection. In addition, automatic roaming was supported: the Volemot device, registered in the network of one city, could be used in another. At the same time, the same 330 MHz band was used, and each base station could, if necessary, “cover” tens of square kilometers with communication.
Volemoto "could become a mass communication for rural areas, a" loyal friend "of collective farmers, summer residents and tourists. For this purpose it would fit better than Western cellular systems developed during the same period (AMPS, NMT), since it was easy to provide it work on a very vast territory. But to serve the many subscribers in a small area (in the city), the “Volemot” was inferior to AMPS and NMT, but further development, however, could solve this problem.
Mobile communication was quite possible to enter in the Soviet way of life, and in the communist ideology. Initially, telephones could, for example, be installed in villages and holiday villages for collective use and rented out at tourist clubs (for the duration of the hike). The service of the call from "Volemoto" could appear in long-distance trains or buses. And, of course, there was no threat to “state security” - mobile communication without encryption devices is very easy to listen to. Therefore, in the future, it could easily become accessible to all citizens of the country.
However, for several years for the “Volemot” project it was not possible to obtain the necessary funding and the development of the system was very slow. Meanwhile, cellular systems in the West actively developed and gained popularity. For the beginning - the middle of the 1980s, the previous leadership was lost.
“Volemot” was nevertheless completed by the end of the 1980s and was ready to begin deployment, but at that time the “process was already underway” and the possibility of catching up with Europe and the USA was no longer discussed.
Nevertheless, the system was launched in a number of cities in the early 90s and is still in effect, just like Altai. Today, their main positioning is professional communication for various services, from taxi to ambulance.
But despite this, full-fledged cellular communication had time to appear in the USSR. The first operator, Leningrad Delta Telecom, began its work on September 9, 1991, three and a half months before the collapse of the USSR. This means that work on its installation began six months or a year before this event, when events that followed in December in Belovezhskaya Pushcha were not predicted even by CIA analysts.
Something interesting. The first cell phones.
Mobile (or rather, car!) Phone from Nokia’s early 80s - the Mobira Senator. The weight of the device is 15 kilograms.
Mobira Talkman - the phone of the second half of the 80s - early 90s. Its weight is only 3 kg.
Motorola's first cell phone was the DynaTAC 8000X, released on March 6, 1983. Its development cost about 100 million dollars (at that time!).
The phone weighed 794 grams and had dimensions of 33x4.4x8.9 cm. The battery charge lasted for 1 hour or 8 hours in standby mode. He had a memory for 30 numbers and one melody.
This phone cost $ 3995. In the mobile market lasted 10 years.
In the network of the first in the US commercial cellular communication company Ameritech Mobile, the monthly fee was $ 50 plus one minute of conversation cost users from 24 to 40 cents (depending on the time of the call). A year after launch, there were 12,000 subscribers in its network.
via gray-croco.livejournal.com
UPD: Just do not put links to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/59574/
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