connected to one telephone wire line, could serve up to six customers. One of the first successful public commercial mobile phone networks was the ARP network in Finland, launched in 1971. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first analog mobile phone call using a heavy prototype model. He called Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G generation) was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. The initial launch network covered the full metropolitan area of Tokyo's over 20 million inhabitants with a cellular network of 23 base stations. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nationwide 1G network. Several other countries also launched 1G networks in the early 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. In the 1990s, the 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems emerged, primarily using the GSM standard. In 1991, the first GSM network (Radiolinja) launched in Finland. American and Canadian wireless providers tend to subsidize phones for consumers but tend to require 2 or 3-year contracts, while Asian and European providers sell the phone at full cost while the monthly fees charged are lower. See also Mobile telephony List of mobile network operators Mobile virtual network operator Telephone company List of telephone operating companies References Mobile technology