Mobile telecommunications use radio waves, instead of wires, to connect users. Though the origins of wireless communications may be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century, the earliest applications for mobile communications date back to the 1920s. After the Second World War, when the civilian use of wireless telecommunications resumed, several industrialised countries independently developed mobile telecommunications systems.

These, however, suffered of a series of technical limitations that hampered their widespread use. Only during the 1980s did these problems begin to be surmounted, with the diffusion of cellular mobile telecommunications technology as it is known today. To fully appreciate the technological challenges mobile telecommunications had to surmount to become a widely spread technology, it is useful to briefly sketch the history of the technology in the context of the working principle of wireless
communications. This chapter outlines the main driving forces of the mobile telecommunications industry and how they shape the evolution of the sector and gives some hints on the prospects for the future of the sector.