Richard H. Frenkiel

Richard H. Frenkiel

Richard H. Frenkiel (born March 4, 1943 in Brooklyn ) is an American engineer and pioneer of cellular technology.

Frenkiel studied mechanical engineering at Tufts University and Rutgers University and was from 1963 at Bell Laboratories , where he worked on the development of cellular communications. With Joel S. Engel and Philip T. Porter he was one of the authors of a draft for the FCC (High Capacity Mobile Telephone System Feasibility Studies and System Plan, 1971), which formed the basis for ATT's Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) . He is the holder of an important mobile communications patent from ATT (Cellular radiotelephone system structured for flexible use of different cell sizes, US Patent 144411 A, filed in 1976). From 1971 to 1973 he worked at ATT headquarters and then again at Bell Labs, where he was head of mobile communications development during the crucial phase from 1977 to 1983. In 1977 the AMPS was extensively tested in Chicago and commercialized in 1983. In 1983 he went to ATT Information Systems Lab and directed cordless phone development.

In 1996 he became visiting professor at Rutgers University and consultant for its WINLAB (Wireless Information Network Laboratory). In 1999 he was mayor of Manalapan , New Jersey .

In 2013, he and other mobile communications pioneers such as Joel S. Engel received the Charles Stark Draper Prize . He is an IEEE Fellow of Bell Laboratories and the National Academy of Engineering and received the 1987 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal with Engel and William C. Jakes . In 1994 he received the National Medal of Technology .

Web links

• Biography at the IEEE