Phil Kane wrote:

Oh? Before ham autopatches were popular on repeaters, the telcos -
both wireline and non-wireline - offered Mobile Telephone Service
(MTS) using mobile operators and Improved Mobile Telephone Service
(IMTS) permitting subscriber dial. Expensive - you bet - but they
were available to the average person. Some of those transceivers
found their way into the ham market after the telcos upgraded to newer
stuff.


Actually, the "supply" of (pre-cellular) mobile phone service was
grossly inadequate to meet the demand for it. That is what drove the
development of cellular phones. Even the owners of the limos in which it
was installed often complained of having to wait 15 minutes or more to
get a dial tone. (You will recall that that service used the 150 MHz
band and there was no law against monitoring it. This was pre-Electronic
Communications Privacy Act.)

--
Klystron