OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

We missed a big day yesterday, the 50th anniversary of the FIRST cellphone call.

Can you remember the first time that you ever made a call on a cellphone? I can...

It was in January 1988. I was in Finland visiting some customers, and one of our local salesmen had driven me to visit a company that we were trying to sell some software to, located maybe 50 miles or so North of Helsinki. On our way back to the city, the salesman called his wife to explain that he would be late getting home as the meeting had gone longer than originally planned, and of course he used his cell phone (Finland was one of the pioneers in cellphone usage). Since he had just talked to his wife, I made the comment that I needed to remember to call my wife when I got back to the hotel, at which point he handed me his cell phone and told me that I should just call her now. I told him that I had never used a cellphone before and he said that now was as good a time as any to start. So I called my wife, of course it was still early in the day back in California, but she was shocked when I explained that I was calling her from a car while on a very dark road (after all, it was January in Finland), out in the middle of nowhere, heading back to Helsinki.

It was years later before we got our first cell phone. Actually my wife got one before I did and only because her Aunt, who lived up in North Hollywood, was ill and my wife was the only family member within a thousand miles and when she was diagnosed with cancer, Barb would often have to drive up there on her own, sometimes late at night and so she got a cellphone just in case of an emergency while on the road. Anyway, in the Spring of 1996 she got a Motorola 'flip-phone' (to this day, our Verizon account is still in her name since that first phone was hers). A few years later, she got me a 'flip-phone' for Christmas. We had Motorola phones for years until 2011, when we switched to a pair of Apple iPhone 4S's.

Currently, she's using an Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and I've got an iPhone 11 Pro.

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

I remember mine as well...it was actually a car phone! But it was on March 3rd 1991, I was driving the company car from a meeting back to the office and got caught up in the Rodney King beating situation...was scared to death!! First time I ever used a cell/car phone..will never forget it. I had just moved to CA from Iowa in 90' and was still in a culture shock to say the least...I moved from CA before the year was out.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Yep. Mine was a bag phone that I kept in my truck. Its analog signal was tremendous and they had to pry it away from me by ending analog service. I was really dismayed.

pdsdville Loc: Midlothian, Tx

Our first "Cell" phone was a Motorola bag phone. Weighed a ton and was really only practical to carry around in your car. Only problem was that there were not too many cell towers. Tried making a call in eastern Oklahoma to a hotel in the area and got a police station in the western part of the state. Much has changed since then.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

9/13/2008. I paid $215 for an iPhone.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

And if you still had that phone today, you could sell it for a fortune.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I do, but I never thought of selling it. It still works - for everything but the phone. I'll have to look on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dcat=9355&_fsrp=1&_from=R40&_nkw=iphone&_sacat=0&Model=Apple%2520iPhone%2520%25281st%2520Generation%2529&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

limey

I had a friend who worked at ATT Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. One morning I was eating breakfast, probably around 7am and I got a call from Dave. The conversation went somehow as follows. "Morning Bob, I'm calling you from my car on a cell phone. (He proceeded to educate me about cell phones) We're developing this at the labs. I might lose you as I go beyond the cell's limits." Well, we did lose contact and I turned to my wife and told her about the call. I then said "Who would ever want something like that."
Would any hoggers like my help in picking stocks?

rcarol

Analog phones were easily cloned and a lot of people ended up with huge phone bills because of it.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

The very first cell phone is located in the AWA museum in Bloomfield, NY.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Road trip! If I make the ten-hour round trip, I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them here.

https://www.visitfingerlakes.com/listing/antique-wireless-museum/351/

pbearperry Loc: Massachusetts

I wish the Cell Phone was never invented. I was happy with the beeper.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I was tempted to get a beeper, but I couldn't think of a good reason. I just like the technology.

RightOnPhotography Loc: Quebec,QC

I got my Motorola flip in 1997. It was not a pocket phone, however the Nokia that replaced it, was pocketable :)

DakotaColt

Well now, I don't remember my first personal cell phone but the first one I saw was at a transportation meeting, I worked in the state aeronautics division of the DOT. On display at a convention, was an early cell phone with camera. My picture was taken and transmitted across the meeting room to the receiving phone which through a connection to a printer made personalized bag tags for those in attendance. Being touted as new tech for the police departments who could transmit pictures of miscreants to field agents etc. That wasn't the first 'radio phone" I'd heard. On a Short Wave radio, I had, we listened to a person make a call on a "portable phone in a brief case" to his wife explaining his meeting had gone on late so would be home late. We didn't hear any glasses tinkling but his next call from the local watering hole to another lady (a very different voice) who asked him how soon he'd be getting there, "you're late", "I'll be there shortly" was his answer. That was in about 1970, technology can be used in many ways other than for true emergencies. Then put a GPS function in the 'phone' along with the camera and you can get a picture of the dirt road you can sometimes be sent down. Then again our daughter and son-in-law were in India for a family wedding and we received both communication and pictures that would have amazed all of us back in the '50's'. nuf'said, JimM