Wireless Today - Network Growth
1979 - Ericsson Co. introduces the cellular telephone in Sweden.
Ericsson projects that world mobile telephone users
will increase from 110 million (mid 1996) to 450 million by the year 2000.
This represents a compound growth of greater than 40% per year over a four year period.
Companies such as Motorola ($28B total revenue in 1996) are expected to capture a significant fraction of this growth.
1997, May 5, Motorola successfully launched first five satellites of Iridium Telecom System designed as a world-wide satellite communication network.