Cutting the Cord

The Cell Phone Has Transformed Humanity

By: Martin Cooper

Narrated by: Traber Burns

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

The cell phone as we know it today almost didn’t happen—and the story of its creation has never been told. Martin Cooper, credited as the “father of the cell phone”, tells the story of how the first cell phone was created. He also outlines the continued positive impact of the cell phone in education, health care, and poverty reduction.

The cell phone changed the world. It revolutionized how people communicate, freed them to get in touch with one another at any time, in any place, without the constraints of the wired network. The cell phone led to the creation and growth of new industries. Yet the true story of its creation has not been told.

This book tells that story. It centers on a battle for control of how people communicate, involving government regulators, lobbyists, police, technology breakthroughs, failures, quartz, and a horse. At the center of that story was Martin Cooper, an engineer, entrepreneur, and futurist. The chapters in his life influenced the creation of the cell phone.

Industry skirmishes became a political war in Washington, a struggle to prevent a monopolistic company from dominating telecommunications. The drama culminated in the first-ever public call made on a handheld, portable telephone—a cell phone. Despite that, the cell phone we know today almost didn’t happen.

Without the vision of a small group at Motorola, the last 40 years would be different. Their story is inspiring and instructive. After a 29-year career at Motorola, Cooper became an entrepreneur, helping launch companies dedicated to accelerating cell phone adoption.

The story of the cell phone has much to teach about innovation, strategy, and management. This book also relates Cooper’s vision of the future of personal communications. That story is far from finished. We have only achieved a small fraction of the cell phone’s potential impact.  

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Martin Cooper (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Enjoyable and onformative

The beginning is a bit slow as the author goes through the early part of his life, but picks up qute a bit when he gets to his Motorola years. Learnt a lot about the development of the first handheld and the engineering feat it actually was at that time. The author provides provocative thoughts on the future use of mobile tech, which I found to be stimulating. Overall, very interesting read.

Great story for electronic engineers

As a former Electronics engineer I really enjoyed this story. I remember reading about this project in popular science way back when.

Excellent narration - Birth of Cellular Phone

As a Telecom technologist, I always dreamt of meeting Martin Cooper, father of Cellular Phone and Andrew Viterbi who gave the Viterbi Algorithm to the world. This book connected me well with Martin Cooper and I felt as if I have been narrating my story of how I started designing India's first village phone.. Amazing to hear from Marty how he has elevated himself to a well known wireless innovator/inventor of 20th century. it is also a proud moment for him to witness the evolution of cellular phone beyond his imagination. It is a great lesson to learn, how his perseverance and determination helped him to achieve his goal amidst the corporate and bureaucracy. I loved listening to this book. Marty and his wife Arlen are the globally known wireless celebrity couples and their contribution and innovation will continue to benefit the fast evolving connected world of everything.