20 years ago this week I got my first mobile phone.

[nickdalzell]

There were microwave-based phones in the '70s

 

[mikedt]

Wow, I didn't know NEC made phones. Looks like a great artifact right there.

Don't think NEC makes phones now. But then I didn't know that Panasonic makes toilets.

 

[Codegerm]

I also use to have a Siemens C45 cellphone. It was rather tiny

 

[NightHawk877]

My first phone was this. I was in my second year of high school and needed a phone. It's sitting in a drawer along with the other deceased cell phones I have.

 

[nickdalzell]

my favorite phone during the Cingular era was my Samsung SGH-x427. grandmom's still works. mine met the washing machine (it was so tiny and light you never knew it was even in the jeans pocket)

the thing i liked about it was the customizable flip open tones. a simple email-yourself-midi-of-star-trek-communicator and you had the classic Star Trek sound effect when you'd flip it open. it also had this cool 80's sounding 'Sounds of Spring' ringtone. to this day i really want it to be the default for my Android phone but you cannot copy the file from grandmom's phone without the cable plus software which died off with Windows 98

 

[MoodyBlues]

There was car phones before the 1980s

There were microwave-based phones in the '70s

I remember as a kid (and, yes, this was back in the Stone Age) seeing people talking on phones in their cars (here in the LA area). And car phones were seen in some old movies, too. I know they were corded. I have no idea how they worked, though.

 

[Codegerm]

I remember as a kid (and, yes, this was back in the Stone Age) seeing people talking on phones in their cars (here in the LA area). And car phones were seen in some old movies, too. I know they were corded. I have no idea how they worked, though.

The Bag phone I had was basically a car phone in a bag. I wired mine to the battery of the Isuzu Trooper I had at the time.

 

[nu2andy]

This is the Panasonic GD55.
Dimensions:77 x 43 x 16m/m.

Now, I think we're going the other way - Pads & Tablets are much bigger but also do a lot more.

 

[Revenant Ghost]

EDIT: @nu2andy - Here's an image of the phone you were talking about.

 

[nickdalzell]

most bag phones were used in vehicles. i don't think many used the portable option. a bag phone is mainly a handset connected to its base/modem via a RJ-45 line and a battery plugs into the same base. the base contains the actual hardware and antenna.

There are a few old TV episodes showing microwave phones in them, and the distinctive tones when calls were placed or lost is heard in some old songs, the end of 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2' from Pink Floyd has some microwave cell noises.

When microwave phones were in use, these used to dot the landscape:

 

[damewolf13]

I had one of those tiny and very cute Siemans phones years ago, too.
I really liked it because it was so tiny.
Back then tiny was the way to go, and the tinier the phone, the better.
But, actually, my first cell phone was an Alltel Motorola flip camera phone that I got back in the winter of 2003, and I can't remember the model mumber to save my life, but I can still see it in my minds eye.

 

[mikedt]

most bag phones were used in vehicles. i don't think many used the portable option. a bag phone is mainly a handset connected to its base/modem via a RJ-45 line and a battery plugs into the same base. the base contains the actual hardware and antenna.

There are a few old TV episodes showing microwave phones in them, and the distinctive tones when calls were placed or lost is heard in some old songs, the end of 'Another Brick in the Wall Part 2' from Pink Floyd has some microwave cell noises.

Sure what you're actually hearing in Another Brick in the Wall, is an old style operator connected transatlantic call with MF signalling, collect call as well. Doesn't it go, "This is Mr Floyd calling, are we reaching Mr. Floyd, will you accept the charges?"...or something like that, will have to give it another listen later.

When microwave phones were in use, these used to dot the landscape:

Those are actually microwave point-to-point telecommunications relay dishes, focused beam line of sight. And still a common sight now. These couldn't be for car phones, because these generate a very narrow focused beam, and are definitely line of sight. AFAIK the old radiotelephone and car phones used VHF. These dishes are normally used for the distribution of TV, internet and telecoms, between the various central offices and switching centres.

This what BT Tower in London was built for in 1964, and it still serves the same purpose today.

EDIT:

Talking of microwaves, anyone in the UK, particularly in Anglia, remember something called Ionica in the late 90s?
Had one of these fixed to your chimney or wall?

It was a telco that had the clever idea of using microwaves, instead of the traditional copper local loop. BT had the monopoly on the local loop at the time. Good idea, except it didn't work as intended due to the fact it's line of sight, and the company went bust within a year. I know about this, because I went to work in Anglia for a few weeks, reconnecting ex-Ionica customers back to BT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionica_%28company%29

 

[Clementine_3]

My dad worked for a local radio station and I remember when the station got car phones. We sat in our driveway and called my mom who was inside the house. We thought that was the coolest thing ever!
I don't recall exactly how old I was but it had to have been very early '70's.

 

[mikedt]

James Bond 007 had a car phone in 1962 ...From Russia With Love.

 

[Clementine_3]

Ya know, when I typed early '70's it didn't sound quite right so I called my sister. Our phone call was in late '68 or early '69. My dad left the radio station in '69.

 

[nickdalzell]

i dunno Mike, they dismantled all of our old MW towers that looked like the one in my pic. the workers told me it was for ancient telephone communications and brought up early mobile phones, so i assumed it was the old microwave cells. a friend had an older RV with the microwave cell still attached to the dash on the driver side. it no longer worked, of course. it honestly looked like any other household phone to an extent, it had no LCD and a few large LEDs consisted of the status display on the base. other than that it had a typical keypad and regular corded handset.

Forget 007, i still think the 'shoe phone' from Get Smart was the best precursor to the modern cell phone:

 

[Stannis the Mannis]

This was my first phone - Nokia 2100.

 

[nu2andy]

Thanks RG, I was trying to show a pic of the phone and boobed. It's a great little phone and still works well. I can use it handsfree with an earphone/mic/cable connected to the mini jack.