What is a Mobile Telephone Transceiver?

[vegassatellite]

....and what is it doing in my Suburban?

It started out with me noticing some black object alligator clipped to the ceiling above my rear-view mirror and hidden behind my ceiling console. Thinking it was odd that I hadn't noticed it before, I removed this little object and it was attached to a cord that ran along the window cross member and down to the floorboard. I peeled back the carpeting to find a rectangle shaped black box with other wires connected to it. There was a wire that also ran up towards the cross member but connected to some other piece that was a missing. Looked like a CB antenna connection. There was also some power wires. A cat5 type of connector that was plugged in to this box had a flat wire coming out of as opposed to twisted pairs. The little object looks like a mini microphone and had a stereo pin connector at the other end, also laying under the carpet near this black box.

The black box has labeling on it that states it is a Mobile Telephone Transceiver.

I gotta admit, seeing that little microphone up at the ceiling and pointed right towards the driver seat had me worried. I know I've got some politically incorrect beliefs, but I'm nobody important. So what the heck is this thing?

 

[navychop]

Doesn't sound like original equipment.

 

[jakesnake3037]

It is for hands-free communication between you, your cell phone and car stereo. Here is the patent on the device:

Mirror mounted mobile telephone system - US Patent 7233661

In other words, a built-in bluetooth headset!!!

 

[vegassatellite]

This thing looked like some kind of 1980s electronics.

 

[TheTechGuru]

What year is your suburban? If it's early 90's sounds like it's the left overs from when it once had a analog cellular "car phone" installed.

Funny thing is no one complained about cell phones causing wrecks when these were mainstream, I guess because your average single task dodo brain person could not afford to get one.

 

[Bobby]

Or, they were so damned expensive that hardly anyone had them and there were fewer wrecks....

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

This makes me wonder what the setup is like in one of my relatives' cars for the hands-free bluetooth that uses the radio.

 

[TheTechGuru]

This makes me wonder what the setup is like in one of my relatives' cars for the hands-free bluetooth that uses the radio.

It's usually built into the radio unit with a remote mic on the mirror or center roof console.

 

[cave1376]

By the pictures, it looks like a first or second generation Onstar setup. Onstar first came out in the 80's. That was all Onstar was, a cell phone mounted in a GM vehicle. It used a mobile phone that was installed in the vehicle. It's not like today's Onstar that is intergraded into the vehicle.