Storm spotting technology: Then and now

Gilbert Sebenste, Staff Meteorologist

Northern Illinois University Illustration ©David Hoadley. Used with permission.

Early technology

• First mobile phone call via radio telephone: 1948 5,000 customers, upgraded to 40,000 in 1965

• Costly: $176/month, $4-$5 per call

• Weighed 79 pounds

• Only available in the largest metro areas

• An average 30 minute wait to make a call

• Only 14 talk channels available

• No apps!

Wikipedia

Early analog cell technology

• The first cell phone was developed by Motorola in 1973; first call, April 3, 1973

• But it took another 10 years for the product to launch, cost over $100 million (2016 dollars)

• It weighed nearly 2.5 pounds, had a battery time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to charge

• Waiting lists to get one were long

Analog cell technology

• From 1990 through 2000, Motorola made 5 watt “bag phones”

• Service available in more rural areas

• 2.5 hours of talk time, 48 hours standby time

• A certain College of DuPage professor got one for storm chasing in 1991

• More spotters could now send in reports in real time

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Early digital spotting technology

• 1991: The first GSM digital network appears

• 1993: IBM “Simon”, the first “smart phone” had 2 MB of storage

• 1993: First text message was sent, went popular in 1997-1998

• First apps: 1998

• Analog networks also shut down in 1998

• First full Internet service on phones: 1999

Digital spotting technology

• 2001 - First mobile broadband: 3G; deployed in U.S. in 2003

• GRLevel3 debuts: 2004

• Spotter Network debuts: 2006

• June 29, 2007: iPhone launched

• 2009: Development and launch of 4G mobile broadband

What’s next:

• 5G deployed in Japan; Verizon announces launch in 2017

• Is expected to have over 1 GB/sec bandwidth

• Can handle way more users and traffic than 4G

• Yes, you’ll need a new phone to get 5G

• What does it mean?

What’s next:

• Video streaming: 1080p/4K video of live weather events will become more common

• Phones will transition to all voice over IP (Internet), most do now

• Apps will become much more sophisticated on mobile devices, much larger storage and much faster networks

• Even with thousands of users, can still do 40-50 mb/sec in testing

• 3D video of storms in real time?

Questions?