Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

In movies and TV, they were around even earlier. James Bond's Aston Martin was outfitted with a car phone as early as his second movie, From Russia with Love (1963). And I remember an episode of The Adventures of Superman where Perry White had one installed in his car, and that was back in the 50s! But as you pointed out, the mobile phones that actually existed when the book was written were analog devices. They were limited in their range, as the technology that allows for a continuous and smooth switching of signal sources between towers had not yet been perfected, and, in addition to their own inherent limitations, they were still subject to all of the weaknesses of land line systems.