Mobile telephone services began in the 1940's and were called MTS's (Mobile Telephone Systems or sometimes manual telephone systems, as all calls were handled by an operator). MTS systems utilized frequency modulation and were generally assigned a single carrier frequency in the 35 MHz to 45 MHz range that was used by both the mobile unit and the base station.
Cellular telephone systems offer a relatively high user capacity within a limited frequency spectrum providing a significant innovation in solving inherent mobile telephone communication problems, such as spectral congestion and user capacity.
Cellular telephone systems replaced mobile systems serving large area (cells) operating with a single base station and a single high power transmitter with many smaller area (cells), each cell with its own base station and low power transmitters.
Telephone Traffic in measured: