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The day in numbers: 50

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(CNN) -- 50 years: A conference in Stockholm today celebrates the 50th anniversary of the world's first mobile telephone system. In 1956 the telecommunications company Ericsson created the pioneering mobile network called "Mobile Telephony A " (MTA) in the Swedish capital.

40 kgs: The weight of the MTA radio equipment, which was designed to be installed in the trunk of a car.

1973: The year Motorola employee Martin Cooper placed the first mobile phone call using a handheld protoype. Cooper called a rival at AT&T's Bell Labs.

1981: The year Ericsson launched the world's first modern mobile network, called Nordic Mobile Telephony.

1991: The year the GSM pan-European standard network was introduced.

2001: The year 3G was introduced, offering mobile broadband services of up to 3.6 megabytes per second.

2.5 billion: The number of people in the world now estimated to own a mobile phone.

80: The percentage of the world's population with mobile coverage.

111: The number of mobile phone subscribers per 100 people in Taiwan, which has the heaviest mobile phone use in the world.


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The pioneering mobile phone system was installed in the trunk of a car and weighed 40 kgs.

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