Natel
Natel (spelling as a brand name: NATEL ) is a trademark of the original PTT and today's telecommunications company Swisscom , registered and used only in Switzerland , under which Swisscom's mobile communications offerings were marketed until 2017 . Colloquially, “Natel” became the generic name for “ mobile phone ” in all linguistic regions of Switzerland .
Word origin
The word Natel is an abbreviation for “ N ational A uto tel efon” and initially referred to the entire radio network technology, including the equipment. Since today's Swisscom - formerly PTT - had a legal monopoly in telecommunications for a long time and was therefore the only mobile communications provider on the Swiss mobile communications market , the term "Natel" became the generic name for "mobile phone" throughout Switzerland in all language regions. .
After the loss of the telecommunications monopoly and with the emergence of other mobile network operators, the word was trademarked in capital letters in 1999 and Swisscom only used it for mobile phone tariff offers and no longer for equipment or network technology. This was the only way to effectively implement trademark protection.
When the digital network (Natel-D) was introduced, the term “mobile phone” was still completely unknown and non-existent (and has also been used by Migros' dishwasher detergent of the same name since the 1960s ). It did not infiltrate from Germany until much later and exclusively in German-speaking Switzerland, but not in Latin-speaking Switzerland , when Swisscom also made sure that the competition was not allowed to use the name NATEL in capital letters for trademark protection reasons, not even for mobile phones. In French-speaking Switzerland has since the word "mobile" in the Italian-speaking establishes "telefonino".
Overall, the word "Natel" represents a Helvetism in the standard German language as well as in French and Italian .
history
Overview
In 1975, the PTT companies began the “mobile telephone network for vehicles” project, supported by a federal economic stimulus program .
- NATEL A (first subnet 1978)
- NATEL B (1983), a portable radio telephone still weighing 12 kilograms in a suitcase
- NATEL C (1987), NMT system, analog voice transmission, digital switching and control information
- NATEL D (1993), based on the GSM transmission standard
Since the liberalization of the market in 1997 there have been several mobile phone providers in Switzerland .
With the introduction of the new “inOne mobile” mobile subscriptions from April 2017, Swisscom is giving up the name “Natel” after almost 40 years.
Beginnings
Wireless telephone technology was used in Switzerland from 1939 to open up mountain huts and from 1949 for use in automobiles. In 1952, a fully automatic car telephone system was put into operation in the greater Zurich area. By 1977, a network of 62 control centers was built along the autobahns, which were supposed to ensure mobile communication by car. However, this system had serious shortcomings, particularly in connection stability. Calls were only possible within a radius of 25 kilometers and the number of parallel calls was limited to 20 participants per control center due to the risk of overload.
Mobile phone A
As a result of technological innovations such as semiconductor technology, a more modern car telephone network with a capacity of 10,000 subscribers was designed by PTT from 1978. The national car phone (Natel) should allow drivers to make national and international phone calls throughout Switzerland. The duration of a mobile phone call was limited to 3 minutes. The Swiss topography also caused further restrictions. A stable connection was disturbed by tunnels and ravines, but also by radio shadows caused by mountains, hills or weak signals.
The Natel A network was divided into five network groups, which were gradually put into operation from 1978 (network group 1 Lausanne, network group 2 Bern, network group 3 Zurich, network group 4 St. Gallen, network group 5 Lugano). The last network group (St. Gallen) went into operation on April 30, 1980.
A Natel A device was either a station permanently installed in the car, which was operated by the car battery, or a suitcase weighing around 12 kg, which also enabled calls outside the car. The acquisition and maintenance costs were high. A Natel-A suitcase cost around 11,000 francs. In addition, there were the ongoing connection fees of the PTT, which amounted to between 90 and 180 francs per month, depending on how many network groups you wanted to call. Even though the mobile communications subscriber capacity in Switzerland was massively increased with the introduction of the Natel-A network, the PTT underestimated the demand considerably. At the end of 1980, the PTT had already 3777 cell phone connections, 2393 of which belonged to the Zurich network group. Since the individual network groups were only geared towards around 2000 connections, this meant continuous overloads and longer waiting times for the Zurich area until a channel was free. The great interest in the new technology forced the PTT in February 1980 to initiate a number stop and not to issue any new numbers.
Mobile phone B
Only months after the last network group of the Natel A network was put into operation, the steadily increasing number of subscribers in November 1980 forced the PTT to switch on a second network.
NATEL A device
NATEL B device (Indelco Compact 801625)
NATEL C device (Technophone PC 107-3)
Web links
- The Swiss Telephone Museum in Greuterhof in Islikon TG
- NATEL and wireless telephones in Swiss mountain huts
- Museum for Communication in Bern
- Photo of the original NATEL (see Fig. 10), photo collection of the Swiss Telephone Museum on the SR DRS website
Individual evidence
- ↑ The history of mobile phone subscriptions Aboprofi - Swiss subscription news accessed on November 6, 2015
- ↑ Swisscom lets the "mobile phone" die. In: Tages-Anzeiger from February 22, 2017
- ^ Regine Buschauer: Telephone. HLS, Historical Lexicon of Switzerland, August 15, 2012, accessed on April 16, 2020 .
- ^ Archives: administrative files of the post, telephone and telegraph companies (today Swiss Post and Swisscom), 1848-1997. Holdings: General Directorate PTT, 1936-1979. Dossier: Mobile phone, National Car Telephony Service, Part 1. Bern, PTT archive . 1981. Signature: DK-A_0415.
- ^ Archives: administrative files of the post, telephone and telegraph companies (today Swiss Post and Swisscom), 1848-1997. Holdings: General Directorate PTT, 1936-1979. Dossier: Mobile, National Car Telephony Service. Bern, PTT archive . 1981. Signature: DK-A_0415.
- ^ Archives: administrative files of the post, telephone and telegraph companies (today Swiss Post and Swisscom), 1848-1997. Holdings: General Directorate PTT, 1936-1979. Dossier: Leaflet Nationales Autotelefonnetz A and B. Bern, PTT archive . 1989. Signature: P 337-13d-1998.
- ^ Archives: administrative files of the post, telephone and telegraph companies (today Swiss Post and Swisscom), 1848-1997. Holdings: General Directorate PTT, 1936-1979. Dossier: Service directive T No. 24. Bern, PTT archive . 1982. Signature: P 16 - 70 (1982) 24.