<P> The first analogue cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System ( AMPS ) . It was commercially introduced in the Americas in 13 October 1983 , Israel in 1986 , and Australia in 1987 . AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology , but it had several serious issues by modern standards . It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner ; it was susceptible to cell phone `` cloning '' and it used a Frequency - division multiple access ( FDMA ) scheme and required significant amounts of wireless spectrum to support . </P>
<P> The first analogue cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System ( AMPS ) . It was commercially introduced in the Americas in 13 October 1983 , Israel in 1986 , and Australia in 1987 . AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology , but it had several serious issues by modern standards . It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner ; it was susceptible to cell phone `` cloning '' and it used a Frequency - division multiple access ( FDMA ) scheme and required significant amounts of wireless spectrum to support . </P>
when were cell phones first released to the public
when were cell phones first released to the public
1983
1983