Well technically yes, CSD was a thing and allowed mobile phones to connect to the internet. However it wasn’t like these days, where you could actually use the internet on the phone. It was a technology that allowed mobile phones to work as a modem. So you’d connect the phone to the serial port of your 90s laptop and could “dial in”. The data rate was terrible as well as the latency, but it could allow salespeople on the road to digitally submit orders to the head office for example. This was technically internet, but usually people dialed in to a specific number which only connected to the one server/service. It was also super expensive to do so, so adoption was low.
Internet on mobile phones first started with WAP and I-mode, which are close to internet and technically use the internet, but still isn’t the same as what we have these days.
The first mobile pocket devices which could actually browse the internet in a modern way were probably pocket pc’s. Especially the Windows Mobile ones that came with a (for the time) very capable browser. They exploded in popularity and soon became available for phones as well. Yes there was a time Microsoft dominated the mobile phone market and caused the juggernaut Nokia to fall. They then completely dropped the ball when they didn’t realize they were actually marketing to consumers instead of business and failed to innovate in ways that were more user friendly. Instead focusing on productivity and technical capabilities. Blackberry and Apple swooped in and the rest is history.
I used a device in the mid 1980s that was a modem with rubber cups that clamped on to the handset of a telephone and was plugged into my portable electric typewriter thingie. I used it to file copy when on the road. Peak experience was using it in a public phone box in the countryside.
Well technically yes, CSD was a thing and allowed mobile phones to connect to the internet. However it wasn’t like these days, where you could actually use the internet on the phone. It was a technology that allowed mobile phones to work as a modem. So you’d connect the phone to the serial port of your 90s laptop and could “dial in”. The data rate was terrible as well as the latency, but it could allow salespeople on the road to digitally submit orders to the head office for example. This was technically internet, but usually people dialed in to a specific number which only connected to the one server/service. It was also super expensive to do so, so adoption was low.
Internet on mobile phones first started with WAP and I-mode, which are close to internet and technically use the internet, but still isn’t the same as what we have these days.
The first mobile pocket devices which could actually browse the internet in a modern way were probably pocket pc’s. Especially the Windows Mobile ones that came with a (for the time) very capable browser. They exploded in popularity and soon became available for phones as well. Yes there was a time Microsoft dominated the mobile phone market and caused the juggernaut Nokia to fall. They then completely dropped the ball when they didn’t realize they were actually marketing to consumers instead of business and failed to innovate in ways that were more user friendly. Instead focusing on productivity and technical capabilities. Blackberry and Apple swooped in and the rest is history.
I used a device in the mid 1980s that was a modem with rubber cups that clamped on to the handset of a telephone and was plugged into my portable electric typewriter thingie. I used it to file copy when on the road. Peak experience was using it in a public phone box in the countryside.