Car phone

Common card · No. 289871

A car phone is a telephone specifically designed for and fixed into an automobile. They were the earliest user-end devices for public commercial mobile telephony systems, beginning when the first mobile radio telephone service originated in 1946. For decades, car phones were trunk units and were luxuriously used by small exclusive groups of individuals, like high-ranking politicians, because of the exorbitant prices of the services. After the deployment and launch of cellular networks (which required significantly less power), car phones were compressed into smaller and integrated single units. They became popular during the latter half of the 1980s as a public status symbol and began being offered by automotive makers in family sedans and limousines in the US. Car phones remained relevant until approximately 1996. By that time, handheld mobile phones had considerably shrunk in size and weight. Convenient in-car handsfree systems connected to pocket-sized phones using technologies like...

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