Frankiel and Engel, researchers at AT&T's Bell Labs, were the key people in the development of the AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) standard, which was adopted by the FCC as the country’s first wireless phone standard. It also was the world's first wireless phone standard. For their achievement, they were jointly awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1994 by the president of the United States. In 1987, Frenkiel, Engel and their colleague William Jakes were honored with the Alexander Graham Bell Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for their work on cellular radio.