Karl Phillips

A Canadian, who enjoyed driving his motorcycle up to his cottage on Lake Chemong near Buckhorn Lake on the Kawartha Lakes of which is just outside Peterborough, along with an unforgettable trip across the USA on his motorcycle in 1971.

Karl Phillips worked at Commerce Optimation Services Limited, 50% owned by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( CIBC ) which started the computer service bureau in 1970 where Karl was in charge of the computor department as a computer systems analyst / programer / operator, located in Don Mills.
The company did computer servicing work for General Motors, CIBC, Union Carbide, Gulf Oil, plus monthly billing for all Sunoco credit card holders across Canada and was able to turn a profit in less than 2 years, something unheard of back then in the computer service industry.

After in 1974, Karl started his own company designing products, for example designing original beer plaques made out of solid red-oak wood for all the 3 major Breweries in Canada, plus manufacturing over 1,000 stained glass lamps per week by using unique jigs all developed solely by Karl.

Karl hired Tony Galati (the artistic craftsman who hand carved the famous Carlsberg Wagon) to wood carve every one of Karl's beer plaques out of solid red-oak wood.
Since all the design work was done by Karl, and all costs of Karl's beer plaques were all paid by Karl, plus in order to ensure that the highest quality of the beer plaques representing their beer brand would be maintained, all 3 major Breweries agreed to give Karl the exclusive rights to his beer plaques.
Soon after, Karl had his beer plaques reproduced out of polyurethane which would give the plaques not only the same look as red-oak wood but also about the same exact density as wood also. so that everyone could enjoy them. Karl solely marketed his items to every major department store chain across Canada, plus to a number of chain stores in the USA.

At one time, Karl had well over 100 workers manufacturing his Tiffany style lamps including his beer plaques just in Canada. Karl had both his Beer Plaques as well as his Tiffany Style Lamps featured in Consumers Distributing Catalogue right across Canada, Shop-Rite's Catalogue in Ontario, and Cardinal Catalogue in Quebec.
Other solid accounts at the time that he sold his unique items to right across Canada were The Bay, Eaton's, Sears, Canadian Tire, Woolco, Zellers, K-Mart, and Robinson's Stores that were located around Oakville and the Golden Horseshoe Region.

Within a few years in 1978, Karl Phillips sold his profitable business but unfortunately due to the new owner's poor management (or such), the new owners had went personnally bankrupt. Karl later found out that they had gone personally bankrupt a number of other times, just a few years prior with other businesses!

The Father of The Current Cell Phone System Used Today:

In 1984, Karl decided to take a break and travel to Florida. During the trip, he purchased two condominiums in Delray Beach as investment properties. Soon after, he rented one of the condos to a man named Morton Weinberg. Morton explained that he had recently relocated to Boynton Beach with his employer and was waiting for his new home to be completed.

As is often the case with new construction, the home was delayed beyond the original completion date. Karl reassured Morton not to worry and told him he could remain in the condo until his house was ready. By the end of November, the home was finally completed, and shortly afterward Morton and his partner invited Karl over for dinner as a gesture of appreciation.

During the visit, Karl asked Morton about his work. Morton explained that he was the Product Research and Development Manager at Motorola. Curious, Karl asked what Motorola’s main product focus was at the time, and Morton quickly replied, “walkie-talkies.”

Karl then posed a question to him. He asked whether, if someone spoke into a walkie-talkie in Florida and the message was relayed from person to person every half mile all the way to Boston, the person in Boston would still hear the original speaker clearly. Morton paused, thought about it carefully, and replied that, in theory, it should work.

That led Karl to explain an idea he had been originally thinking about since he was 12 years old. Later on in life in 1971, Karl created a large Bristol board blueprint illustrating a communications network made up of relay towers spread about every half mile across rural areas and mounted on rooftops throughout cities. The concept envisioned seamless communication across long distances without the need for direct point-to-point transmission.

Morton then explained that Motorola was working on a limited communication system intended only for major financial districts in large cities. Their idea involved installing a satellite dish at one end of a district, but the system’s range would only extend about half a mile. An even bigger problem, Morton admitted, was that users would not be able to call each other directly. Instead, mobile phone users would have to dial an operator, who would then manually connect the call — much like the telephone systems of the 1930s. Motorola anticipated needing hundreds of operators to manage the volume of calls.

At first, Morton insisted Karl’s concept would not work. But Karl argued passionately that it could. Every user, he explained, could have a unique phone number and frequency, allowing people to communicate directly with one another without relying on operators.

As the discussion continued, Morton became increasingly animated. He paced back and forth across the room, visibly excited as the implications of the idea began to sink in. Finally, he stopped and admitted, “Yes — it should work.”

Morton then mentioned that he had a luncheon meeting scheduled the next day with Martin Cooper, one of Motorola’s most influential figures and widely regarded as a pioneer in mobile communications. Morton explained that they had known each other for more than 20 years through their work at Motorola. Karl encouraged him to share the concept during their meeting, and Morton assured him that he would.

The rest, as they say, is history. Years later, Google acquired Motorola Mobility in a deal valued at approximately $12.5 billion, cementing Motorola’s place as one of the foundational innovators in the development of mobile phone technology.

If it wasn't for Karl's technology idea, there would be no iPhone company not to mention other numerous phone companies, basically no Samsung plus other phone manufacturers, and numerous other businesses related to using cell phones and cellular services.

In 2003, Karl was recruited at that time by a small unheard of start-up IT Company by the name of Google, located in Mountain View California.
As an employee of Google, Karl was responsible for a number of tasks, including as a systems analyst with a direct line to Google's head programmer to forward ideas which would later help improve Google's presence on the internet of which are still being used today.

I believe we all owe Karl a great deal of gratitude and recognition as he's changed the way we live into a much safer and a better tomorrow.

Karl Phillips currently lives just outside Toronto, Ontario.