from back in the day...
Personally, I have been tracking all things wireless since 1977 when I had my first "mobile" phone installed in the back of
my rockin' Vega Wagon. Yeah, I know I am dating myself, but that is how long I
have had a love affair with talking business while in motion. The only
problem, back in 1977, the mobile phone was contained in a box about
the size of a family barbecue, it had to be hardwired into the trunk of
your car, your motor had to be running, and you had to be within about
60 miles of a very tall tower
backed up by live mobile operators, who had to patch your calls through
by hand.
Then, in the 80's Motorola was shipping the gold standard of the time
-- "The Brick". You didn't need a car to carry it around or an
alternator-driven battery weighing 40 lbs to keep it powered up. The
Brick was
wireless and was a reasonable step forward in sound quality - if your
control test bed was a couple of soup cans connected by a long string.
The early 90's, then ushered in what was really the first mobile phone
that was somewhat practical to carry on your hip, the Motorola
MicroTac. Sound quality was good and at just under a pound, it made a
pretty good weapon if you got caught off-guard on a poorly lit street.
Of course, if you were a communications junkie, you could have added
the heavy duty battery (way before lithium ion technology) and you
could bulk that "bad-boy" up to about a pound and a half, while adding
more surface area for getting a better grip.