The technology the public gets is fifty to one-hundred years old to what the secret government has been working on. The secret government is separate from government and answers to nobody.
Ya knoooww... a satellite/ship phone would probably be about that big.. if only to accomodate a huge-assed battery to boost the signal enough to make it out to whatever other planet the enterprise is at.
Still, though.. it's funny. They probably wouldnt have believed it back then if they threw a tiny Nokia into their hands and said 'use it as a long range walkie talkie phone!'