1981 |
In August, Telecom Australia  launched the first public automatic mobile phone system (PAMTS) in Melbourne, following with a Sydney launch in November.
Abbreviated to MTS or just 007 (after the telephone number prefix), this service was fully automatic but not cellular. In mobile phone generation terms it was a 0G service.
This was a car phone system only. It involved a radio transmitter attached to the boot of each subscriber’s car and a handset with a large cradle inside the car. A system cost $4,990 to buy and install with a $350 connection fee and annual access fee of $800.
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| 1987 |
Telecom Australia launched Australia’s first cellular network based on the USA AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) – an analogue or 1G standard.
Handheld mobile phones ‘the Brick’ were sold for $4,250 each.
This network launched in Sydney in February and in Melbourne in May. It was extended over time into other capitals and major cities and then country areas.
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The world's first commercial handheld cellular phone, DynaTAC 8000X portable cellular phone, 1983.
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| 1989 |
In June, the 100,000th AMPS service was connected. |
| 1992 |
In January, Optus was licensed as a carrier and in June began to resell the AMPS service.
By October the 500,000th AMPS connection was made.
In December, Vodafone was also licensed as a carrier and began building its own network. |
| 1993 |
Telecom Australia changed their name to Telstra and launched a new 2G digital mobile phone (GSM) network on 27 April.
The company continued operating its AMPS analog network. At this time there were about 635,000 analogue mobile phones in Australia, less than four per cent of the population had one.
Optus launched its digital mobile network in May and Vodafone followed in October. |
| 1994 |
By March it was reported that the number of AMPS subscribers had reached one million. |
| 1995 |
By July, it was reported that there were 300,000 subscribers on the three digital GSM networks while there were two million AMPS subscribers. |
| 1996 |
In June, it was reported that the one-millionth digital subscriber had been connected and there were 2.6 million AMPS network subscribers. |
| 1998 |
Telstra MobileNet customers (both AMPS and digital networks) exceed three million.
Telstra announced plans to build a new network to replace the AMPS network, which was to be phased out due to government regulation. The new network was to be based on CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology.
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| 1999 |
In September, Telstra launched the CDMA network and by the end of December the AMPS networks was largely closed down. |
| 2000 |
In March, Hutchison launched another CDMA network in Sydney and Melbourne and in June, OneTel launched a GSM 1800 network using a competing 2G technology.
By September the AMPS network was fully closed in Australia, spelling the final end of ‘the Brick’. |
| 2001 |
In February, it was reported that the number of mobile phones (not subscribers) in Australia exceeded the number of landlines, or over 10.7 million.
In June, OneTel’s GSM 1800 network was closed and shortly after Telstra commercially launched a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) data system across its GSM network, supporting basic email and internet access on mobile phones.
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| 2003 |
It was reported that at the start of the year there were over 6.3 million subscribers on the Telstra GSM network alone and around 700,000 subscribers on their CDMA network.
Australia’s first 3G network was launched in April, with the NEC e606 mobile phone the first released in Australia to support video calls and broadband speed internet access. |
| 2005 |
Australian mobile phone users reached nine million, or just under half the population, with eight million mobile phone handsets sold through the year.
TransACT launched the ACT’s first locally owned and operated mobile phone service in December, using the Vodafone network. |
| 2006 |
Hutchison reported in June that they had connected the one-millionth Australian 3G mobile phone subscriber. |