October 24th, 2013, 7:16 am
I heard this unknown word, today -- NatelQuoteNatel is a term used exclusively in Switzerland and in the Principality of Liechtenstein as 'mobile phone'.This word was coined in 1975, when the Swiss Post (at the time called PTT), chose to introduce a mobile phone service for vehicles in Switzerland: Nationales Auto-TELefonnetz (national phone network for car). When the PTT was dismantled, Swisscom decided to plunge into the market of mobile phones and registered the word Natel for its own uses. Thus, nowadays, Swisscom is the only company who can exploit the term for commercial purposes.In Switzerland it is still used as a synonym for mobile phone (or cell) in every linguistic section. Outside of the Swiss borders this word is unknown like many others which have a cultural origin.