Aquapac
Aquapac is a registered trademark and brand name of a UK-based manufacturing company, Aquapac International Limited, specializing in waterproof cases and bags. The privately owned company was formed in 1983 and holds patents worldwide on systems for sealing bags and cases. The range commenced with a waterproof case for the original Sony Walkman known as the ‘Aquaman’, followed by cases for handheld VHF radios. Following Motorola’s invention of the first cellphone Aquapac launched the world’s first waterproof cellphone case. Nokia was an important customer for these cases during the 1990s, as were cellphone operators such as Deutsche Telekom and NTT DoCoMo. Aquapac went on to launch waterproof cases for other handheld electronics such as cameras and eReaders. The company operates out of factories in London, England.
Telephone
The first telephones were directly connected to each other from one customer's office or residence to another customer's location. Being impractical beyond just a few customers, these systems were quickly replaced by manually operated centrally located switchboards. This gave rise to landline telephone service in which each telephone is connected by a pair of dedicated wires to a local central office switching system, which developed into fully automated systems starting in the early 1900s, and eventually into a worldwide public switched telephone network. For greater mobility, various radio systems were developed for transmission between mobile stations on ships and automobiles in the mid-20th century. Hand-held mobile phones were introduced for personal service starting in 1973. In later decades their analog cellular system evolved into digital networks with greater capability and lower cost.