The first mobile phone call was made 40 years ago today
tinyurl.com/cxtxszw - The Telegraph.
I think I bought my first one around 1995. A Philips analogue thing that came with 2 batteries. One gave a standby time of up to 14 hours, the other 8 hours.
Various Nokia models followed afterwards, and my best phone to date is the iPhone4.
How many mobile phones have you owned in your lifetime?
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Well you did ask!
1999 - My first mobile, a Philips Savvy, a pretty awful phone because the screen was too small.
2001 - Bought a Nokia 3210 was a great basuc phone, far easier to use than my old Philips
2003 - A bus drenched me on the way to university, I got so soaked it wrecked my 3210 and my expensive ZIP disk in my pocket (thankfully it was backed up!). I replaced it with a cheap Alcotel, my first colour phone.
2004 - Alcatel broke, replaced it with a cheap Siemems colour phone, this was my first WAP phone.
2005 - Replaced it with a very cheap Sony Erricson phone.
2006 - Bought my first proper phone, a Sony Erricson W750. This soon became my business phone.
2006- Got my first contract phone, a Sony W850.
2007 - Got a Nokia N80, my first smartphone. Discovered an unsecure network in the office above a night club so I had a lot of fun with that. Back then it was unusual to surf the internet while moshing in the mosh pit.
2008 - Upgraded to a N81.
2009 - Upgrade to an N86
2010 - Got my first Android phone, a Galaxy S1, (this is still my current business phone). It was so good I saw no reason to upgrade.
2013 - Sony Xperia T. Great little phone I just hope it lasts as long as the Galaxy. Had to take my first one back as it became apparent the phone and vibrate function didn't work. It is extremely fast and has a lovely screen.
Business phones
2006 - A cheap crappy Motorola thing.
2007 - A Sirea Wireles thing, it ran Windows mobile, but it was 2G and had no WIFI, but then I only paid like £50 for it.
2008 - A mid rang Nokia Symbian phone, I forget the model but it was made out of brushed metal silver, was a rather nice phone.
2010 - Replaced it with my N86 when I got the Galaxy.
2011 - I lost my beloeved N86 on a bus, so I had to get a new phone as an emergency, I replaced it with a Blackbury, which in many ways was crap and in anger I smashed it up a couple of weeks ago.
2013 - My Galaxy S1 was is now my business phone and it works great for my needs.
As somebody that hates mobiles, I have owned a lot of phones, and probably spend £1000s on them!.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 10:49
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>>How many mobile phones have you owned in your lifetime?
Two in about ten years.
Bought a silver one and then when it broke a friend gave me a red one.
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i had a galaxy ace.... doesnt support flash player and never will, got rid ....now have a 15 quid samsung phone from tesco
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1985, some motorolla thing that had a shoulder strap, handle and a large battery pack
1987 - gave up on mobiles.
1995 Nokia 2110 - good phone.
1999 Nokia 5110 - Great phone! still got it.
2003 6310i greatest phone ever made. Still got it.
2005 6230I
2008 Blackberry pearl
2009 Iphone 3
2011 Iphone 4
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>>>1985, some motorolla thing that had a shoulder strap, handle and a large battery pack
Similar here. Nokia I think and I'm sure it went via a company base/repeater station when you dialled out... so perhaps not a true mobile as we know now.
Looked like this...
suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kuva/Lusto+-+Suomen+Mets%C3%A4museo/lres_134148.jpg
...we had similar but fixed ones in the cars too.
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I had a Motorola house-brick mobile - cost a load of dosh, too! Must have been in about 1989 or maybe 1990. Coverage was awful.
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1993 I bought a Sony "Mars Bar" as they were called. From memory it cost over £300 and the call charges and rental were pretty hefty too. I haven't paid for a mobile for years, just get the free upgrade every 18 months or so.
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Well you are paying really aren't you. Free upgrades are like free lunches - they don't really exist.
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I think we need to look at the history. There's clear evidence of mobile phones existing in 1928.
You can see it here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6RjpD1vwh8
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My first was a distress purchase in 1996 when my Father was dying and I needed to keep in touch 24/7. Motorola MR20 on Orange, £15 pcm with 15 minutes bundled talk time.
Upgraded to MR30 after a year mainly to get battery life. The 20 wouldn't manage 24hrs standby.
2000 Upgraded to Nokia 3210.
2005-7 Variety of basic Nokias. Lost 3 in quick succession due them being very lightweight and falling off my belt.
2007 Sony K310 from which B junior had upgraded. Heavy enough to hear when dropped.
2009 Sony K800i sourced as above.
2010 Lost K800i on Paris Metro. Replaced with similar s/h from Cex.
The 800i does all I want for now though I'll be snared by the smartphone bug eventually.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 12:38
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>> Well you are paying really aren't you. Free upgrades are like free lunches - they
>> don't really exist.
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Depends how you look at it. My rental and calls package doesn't alter whether I upgrade at every opportunity or keep each phone a decade. And I've never had to buy a battery.
The latest must haves aside, these things must cost absolutely peanuts to manufacture.
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I pay £20 a month for my new Sony Experia T. Now it is £300 on Chav As You Go but I am paying £20 a month for two years. That is £480 in total.
So I am paying £180 of two years of unlimited internet with no data cap (not sure how that works), 600 minutes and 2000 texts. A complete bargain really, and the internet on 3G is extremely fast too.
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A complete bargain really, and the internet on 3G is extremely fast too.
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I need glasses to view a 22" monitor, I couldn't be done with trying to read pages on a postage stamp sized screen.
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I need glasses too, even for a 22" but I find a mobile is phone, that said my glasses are for distance.
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"I need glasses too, even for a 22" but I find a mobile is phone, "
are you sure?
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I can't be more accurate than to say "several" since the late 1980s. Ruled my life ever since. I'd disinvent the wretched things if I could. Except my one of course which would be set to make only outgoing calls.
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The first I remember seeing were around 88/89. At time I was working in the cash office of a London court with a constant stream of solicitors outdoor clerks coming in with process to issue and payments to lodge. If stuff was questioned they'd grumble and stomp off outside to use a payphone.
Then one of them pulled a mobile the size of a brick from his bag and began an animated conversation with his principal down in Holborn.
These would be the early analogue variety that could be eavesdropped with a scanner.
Wish I'd had my Sony Wave Hawk at the time!!
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I've always used the telephone. When hacking I became intimately acquainted with its little ways world-wide, and very tedious and frustrating it could be. Even here where the phones usually work well, there was always the problem of finding a public phone that hadn't been vandalised and getting the coins to feed into it.
Nevertheless during the early mobile upsurge I resisted the thing fearing that it would prove distracting and expensive. Eventually one was forced on me as a gift by a daughter who had her own reasons for wanting to talk to me or her mother morning noon and night. It's a very useful thing, taking us unnoticed into what a few years ago seemed a science-fiction idealised Rip Kirby world.
I use mine for making phone calls, telling the time and storing phone numbers. Couldn't easily do without it now. Best of all, there's no mobile reception in the house here.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 3 Apr 13 at 15:19
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I've had, more or less, the same mobile phone number since the late '80s. I feel it had some digits added without me being consulted at some time but it's much the same anyway. It used to be easy to remember I seem to recall but I've forgotten it and the new one now. I never ring myself and of course you don't have to give people your number now as it appears by some witchcraft on their phones anyway. It's on my business cards and in the address / signature thing on my emails so people seem to work it out.
People very rarely ring with good news I find. They're usually trying to tell me, or get me to agree to something I'm not entirely at peace with.
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i wanted to keep my original mobile phone but it was costing me too much in wheelbarrow tyres
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>> 1993 I bought a Sony "Mars Bar" as they were called. From memory it cost
>> over £300 and the call charges and rental were pretty hefty too. I haven't paid
>> for a mobile for years, just get the free upgrade every 18 months or so.
>>
>>
My first phone was also a Sony Mars bar.. how things have moved on!
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1992 Nokia Cityman 100. Rep kept talking about how robust it was. "It's got an aluminium chassis", said he then banged the demo model on the desk. The idea of a piece of tech having a 'chassis' sold me. Still got it.
Since then, dozens, all Nokias including the 7110 (i think), the curved slidy phone and the 6310i, the best phone ever with a button keypad. Most of them seemed to fit and work in the car kit that moved from car to car (until I stopped being a captain of industry and had to buy my own phones).
Now I've got a Lumia 710 but I don't bang it on the desk.
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1. A huge Nokia from carphone warehouse in 1997, when I started working away ferom home in the week. Got rid in 1999, didnt have another until
2. Alcatel thingy from Virgin. First text capable phone I had. Internal ariel broke so replace for free by
3. Thinner Alcatel thingy. Tiny screen irritated me for long text conversations so replaced by
4. Sony K600i (I think) on O2 contract, replace by
5. Sony K800i. My first 3g phone - useless battery.
6/7. At end of contract returned to Virgin for 2 consecutive samsung slider type phones
8. Upgraded to smartphone HTC Wildfire at end of contract replaced by
9. Motorola Razr i. Nice big screen, 36hour typical battery life. Should last the length of my contract before I get bored.
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>> 5. Sony K800i. My first 3g phone - useless battery.
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The battery is OK as long as you turn the 3G off!!
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I've never bought a mobile phone. They've all been company supplied with the odd hand-down from Mrs K. I only pay for personal calls.
First one was a Racal "transportable" that was waiting on my desk the morning after one of the directors had to wait half an hour for me to find a phonebox in mid-Wales after I'd been paged. In it's carry-case it was about the size of three house bricks and weighed about the same. That was in the early 80's.
tinyurl.com/clpgjbf
It was a PoS and replaced by a Motorola 8000 after a couple of months. A fully charged 'good' battery lasted about 8hrs on standby or considerably less if you actually used it. Coverage and signal strength was crap even with the car kit so you still needed to carry a pager and coins for a phonebox. It got lots of attention in the pub though.
In the intervening years I've had various models from Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Philips, Blackberry and Samsung - don't know how many.
Currently using a Sammy S3 that was an upgrade on my wife's contract but her old Sammy S1 refuses to connect to my car bluetooth so she gave me the S3.
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My first was similar to Roger's. I built a holder for it out of steel to go on the dash of the transporter. Prior to that I had a pager for a few years but I found it was difficult to spot the new glass phone boxes out on the road. The red ones were much easier to see from a distance.
There was also the problem of parking a truck near one in country towns to make a call back to the customer.
I put one on the roof of me service van one night while I opened the door....guess what ? I found the bits on the main road in the morning !
Didn't need one for a few years but have had a few Nokias in the last 12 yrs or so. I need one now for the job but I'm happy with the Doro...It does what I want.
Ted
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Think I got my first mobile in the late 80s or early 90s. Not sure of order but these have beenb
Motorola Startac
Another Motorola phone
Mitsubishi phone of some sort
Nokia 3210
Nokia 3310
Nokia 3410
Nokia Xpress Music
Nokia N85
Samusng galaxy S2
Sony Xperia Arc
Current phone is on SIM only - it does everything that I feel I need my phone to do so have no plans for upgrading though at some point it will no doubt get water damaged or reach the end of its natural life!
EDIT - and stopped using a belt holder for my phones around the Nokia 3410 stage !!
Last edited by: BobbyG on Thu 4 Apr 13 at 00:06
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The mobile is 40 yrs old - RattleandSmoke
