Car phone
telephone intended to used be in a car
A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile.
This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 17, 1946.
Overview
United States
The original equipment weighed 80 pounds (36 kg), and there were initially only three channels for all the users in the metropolitan area (other sources claim six channels).
On October 2, 1946, Motorola communications equipment carried the first calls on Illinois Bell Telephone Company's new car radiotelephone service in Chicago. Due to the small number of radio frequencies available, the service quickly reached capacity.
In 1964 AT&T introduced the Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS). More licenses were added, bringing the total to 32 channels across three bands (See IMTS frequencies). This service was used at least into the 1980s in large portions of North America.
In 1968, almost 22 years after the initial network, the US government started to consider reserving spectrum for land mobile radio communication, to be used by private persons.
The public source identifies “Car phone” as telephone intended to used be in a car. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around phone, telephone and intended.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Car phone”, the useful work is to connect “telephone intended to used be in a car” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2851878. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1964 and 1968.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Car phone”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Car phone primary sources, Car phone archive and phone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Car phone”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Car phone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.