<P> Many of the iconic early commercial cell phones such as the Motorola DynaTAC Analog AMPS were eventually superseded by Digital AMPS (D - AMPS) in 1990, and AMPS service was shut down by most North American carriers by 2008 . </P> <P> In February 1986 Australia launched its Cellular Telephone System by Telecom Australia . Peter Reedman was the first Telecom Customer to be connected on 6 January 1986 along with five other subscribers as test customers prior to the official launch date of 28 February . </P> <P> In the 1990s, the' second generation' mobile phone systems emerged . Two systems competed for supremacy in the global market: the European developed GSM standard and the U.S. developed CDMA standard . These differed from the previous generation by using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out - of - band phone - to - network signaling . The rise in mobile phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw the advent of prepaid mobile phones . </P> <P> In 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) launched in Finland . In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher than those in America, though with some overlap . For example, the 900 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems . In America the IS - 54 standard was deployed in the same band as AMPS and displaced some of the existing analog channels . </P>

When did cell phones become common in the us