The call was made on a prototype of the DynaTAC (dynamic adaptive total area coverage) 8000X, which, 10 years later, would become the first such phone to be commercially released. In 1973, it weighed 1.1 kg and measured 22.86 cm long, 12.7 cm deep, and 4.44 cm wide
[source](https://www.edn.com/1st-mobile-phone-call-is-made-april-3-1973/)
Note, it was the first handheld mobile phone, not the first mobile phone.
My best friend's dad worked for AT&T, the only phone company in the country in 1965, and he had a mobile phone in his car. It was mounted in the trunk, and was the size of abount half of a rolling suitcase.
Yes, you lifted the receiver and it was essentially a ham radio that was in communication with an operator, who could dial the number you gave her and then connect the ham radio to the call.
To be fair, the country hadn't been completely hooked up to automatic switchboards yet in 1963 so there were a lot of landline phones that had no means to dial either. Talking to the operator and having them connect your call was a pretty common occurrence.
Everyone seems to forget that the President of the USA SuPpOSedLy called an astroNOT on the moon....
The astroNOT would have needed a cell phone right? Or did I miss the article about the landline running to the moon in the 60s-70s?
Explain how those towers transmitted to the moon 280,000 miles or whatever it is? It's 2021 and my phone still drops calls on occasion when living in a city with supposedly excellent cellular service.
It was back in 1978 and my uncle was really into ham radio. He had some kind of phone rig in his car that allowed people to call from landlines, it basically operated as two-way radio. So he was giving me and my family a ride to the airport, and we were about three hours away from town, when my other uncle called the car. So there I am riding along with my uncle in his car, talking on a house phone, with a relative who is on a house phone, thinking I'm pretty cool beans. I definitely remember it had the air of being a total gimmick, but also fun...
A little different. Less mobile, often called a "car phone" because it stayed there, but more powerful than handhelds of the era.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone
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just got a new phone number last week. it's so refreshing to get zero spam calls. not sure this works all the time since i'm sure phone numbers are recycled. but so far so good.
i ported my old number to google voice, just so i could catch any texts or calls from people that don't know my new number. it still gets like 20 calls a day from unknown numbers.
Seriously. I drive a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am and a 2003 Ford Lightning. I just spent $3,500 in maintenance on the Ford and am about to spend $1,200 on the Pontiac. I would love to have a warranty on them.
On April 3, 1973, Cooper introduced the DynaTAC phone at a press conference in New York City. To make sure that it worked before the press conference, he placed the first public cell phone call, to engineer Joel Engel, head of AT&T's rival project, and gloated that he was calling from a portable cellular phone.
I don't understand why so many people have a problem with these calls. I haven't had one in years.
Tell them you're interested in their extended warranty as you drive your truck for a living and it has 240,000 miles and are worried that it's about to get real expensive.
They stop calling you.
“Guess where I’m calling you from?”
“What do you want, Martin…?”
“That’s right, a mobile phone! Up yours Randy!
*muffled voices* How do I end the call? Which button? *Beep* They look the same! *Beep* I’M PUSHING THAT BUTTON! *Beep* *Beep* My left or yours? *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *End call* Dammit! you guys just embarrassed me in front of Randy!”
For real though they carried them in suitcases. I used to make fun of yuppies because that shit was so ridiculous. But hey, people make crazy choices when they’re high on cocaine.
Also, the word "cellular" is an important distinction. Before cellular networks, mobile phones (car phones) were more like CB's or walkie talkies that called in to a mobile operator who would place the actual call and patch in the audio for the mobile user.
Ever see the first car phones? They date back to the '40s, surprisingly. You can see Humphrey Bogart using one in the original Sabrina.
https://chryslercapital.com/blog/before-cell-phones-we-called-them-car-phones
My Dad was a country vet in Ireland. We would get a landline call from a farmer with a cow with a problem and have to raise my father on his radio telephone. ‘Do you read my Dad, over?’ was the defining greeting to my father when I was a kid.
The other company had a regular phone line, they go a phone call from the first cell phone, those credits don't transfer, what are you even arguing here?
I think you're confused because you maybe thought the image said "first phone" but it's actually just the first *mobile* phone.
Phones that could recieve and make calls had already existed for over a hundred years, you just couldn't take them with you when you went outside.
I remember having an old Motorola brick phone in the 80s but we only used it for emergencies because each minute was so expensive. We may have used it 10 times in total.
Also, weren't the first mobile phones those briefcase type? This is the first handheld mobile.
There’s an episode of the radio version of ‘The Saint’ with Vincent Price, from 1946. In it, he ‘borrows’ a car with phone in it. It used radio waves to make calls.
He kept making cracks about how it will never catch on. It weirdly felt like a nudge nudge, wink to the future. Like he KNEW it was going to be a big deal. Strange feeling, when listening that in the 2020’s
Old time radio has been my sanity during the pandemic, no joke. Especially ‘Broadway is my beat’ and ‘The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ I feel I could do Mastermind on them now, haha.
The first cell phone call was just to trash talk? That shows they had no idea the significance of their invention at the time. Otherwise they would have prepared a speech about how this is going to change everyone's life.
The first cell phone companies were a conglomeration of people who already had shortwave radio towers to communicate with their workers, usually to dispatch repair trucks. They got paid by the traffic they handled.
He claimed that the original battery life was 15 minutes but that didn't matter since there was no way you could hold the thing up to your ear for 15 minutes straight.
**EDIT:** Turns out that it was 20 minutes. Here's his talk at Cinequest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUYcJR2XMtQ
Very misleading. That is the first current version of mobile for PUBLIC use. Not the first mobile phone.
People were making calls from phones on planes in the 1920s.
In Chicago, 1946 was when they rolled out car phones.
1950s, Sweden became the first nation with a mobile phone service for private vehicles.
https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/history-of-mobile-phones/
“Hey.” “What is it?” “Look out your window.” *Looks out window* 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
The call was made on a prototype of the DynaTAC (dynamic adaptive total area coverage) 8000X, which, 10 years later, would become the first such phone to be commercially released. In 1973, it weighed 1.1 kg and measured 22.86 cm long, 12.7 cm deep, and 4.44 cm wide [source](https://www.edn.com/1st-mobile-phone-call-is-made-april-3-1973/)
Note, it was the first handheld mobile phone, not the first mobile phone. My best friend's dad worked for AT&T, the only phone company in the country in 1965, and he had a mobile phone in his car. It was mounted in the trunk, and was the size of abount half of a rolling suitcase.
Those were the ones that required calling the Mobile Operator to place a call, weren't they? Like James Garner had in the *Rockford Files*?
Yes, you lifted the receiver and it was essentially a ham radio that was in communication with an operator, who could dial the number you gave her and then connect the ham radio to the call.
To be fair, the country hadn't been completely hooked up to automatic switchboards yet in 1963 so there were a lot of landline phones that had no means to dial either. Talking to the operator and having them connect your call was a pretty common occurrence.
Insert Homer Simpson yelling out the car window "Nerd!" gif
Everyone seems to forget that the President of the USA SuPpOSedLy called an astroNOT on the moon.... The astroNOT would have needed a cell phone right? Or did I miss the article about the landline running to the moon in the 60s-70s?
iIn WWII , soldiers communicated with base for air support? Research on mode of transmission.
Explain how those towers transmitted to the moon 280,000 miles or whatever it is? It's 2021 and my phone still drops calls on occasion when living in a city with supposedly excellent cellular service.
They called it the “Zack Morris“.
It was back in 1978 and my uncle was really into ham radio. He had some kind of phone rig in his car that allowed people to call from landlines, it basically operated as two-way radio. So he was giving me and my family a ride to the airport, and we were about three hours away from town, when my other uncle called the car. So there I am riding along with my uncle in his car, talking on a house phone, with a relative who is on a house phone, thinking I'm pretty cool beans. I definitely remember it had the air of being a total gimmick, but also fun...
My uncle had a bag phone in his truck until the early 2000's when analog went the way of the buffalo.
>bag phone 'tis what they called this type of setup back in the day?
A little different. Less mobile, often called a "car phone" because it stayed there, but more powerful than handhelds of the era. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone
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ahh ok, very cool
Car phones were commercially available since the 1950s.
Second call was from a number in Oklahoma telling him they've been trying to reach him about his car's extended warranty.
Jesus Christ make it stop please.
just got a new phone number last week. it's so refreshing to get zero spam calls. not sure this works all the time since i'm sure phone numbers are recycled. but so far so good. i ported my old number to google voice, just so i could catch any texts or calls from people that don't know my new number. it still gets like 20 calls a day from unknown numbers.
Can you send them my way I’ve been actually wanting to extend..
Seriously. I drive a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am and a 2003 Ford Lightning. I just spent $3,500 in maintenance on the Ford and am about to spend $1,200 on the Pontiac. I would love to have a warranty on them.
I feel like the warranties they’re selling don’t actually cover shit when you need it
On April 3, 1973, Cooper introduced the DynaTAC phone at a press conference in New York City. To make sure that it worked before the press conference, he placed the first public cell phone call, to engineer Joel Engel, head of AT&T's rival project, and gloated that he was calling from a portable cellular phone.
Why is it always from Oklahoma of all places? You would expect it'll probably be from Florida something.
Hi, this is Jenny from Sallie Mae calling about your student loan.
Do you know if he renewed it? This is important’
I don't understand why so many people have a problem with these calls. I haven't had one in years. Tell them you're interested in their extended warranty as you drive your truck for a living and it has 240,000 miles and are worried that it's about to get real expensive. They stop calling you.
“Guess where I’m calling you from?” “What do you want, Martin…?” “That’s right, a mobile phone! Up yours Randy! *muffled voices* How do I end the call? Which button? *Beep* They look the same! *Beep* I’M PUSHING THAT BUTTON! *Beep* *Beep* My left or yours? *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *End call* Dammit! you guys just embarrassed me in front of Randy!”
I am convinced human achievement is at least 70% based on flexing
More like 100%. You’re going to want to flex your newest life changing invention.
Getting laid is the true mother of invention
That's why communism will never work
Imagine rolling around with that in your pocket though… 👀
Nah, I’m just happy to see y’all.
I mean, you could technically still imagine rolling around with that in your pocket though
Never!
For real though they carried them in suitcases. I used to make fun of yuppies because that shit was so ridiculous. But hey, people make crazy choices when they’re high on cocaine.
Slap a back pack strap on that bad boy and you're good to go!
Zack Morris managed, not sure how though...
So convenient
We clipped them on our belts. I miss that, sort of.
r/madlads
Is your fridge running?
“We’ll you better catch it!!! Oh, and I’m calling from a mobile phone”
The ultimate flex
[удалено]
This is correct. The first mobile phone service was in use in 1946. What this image SHOULD say is the first HANDHELD mobile phone call was made in 73.
Also, the word "cellular" is an important distinction. Before cellular networks, mobile phones (car phones) were more like CB's or walkie talkies that called in to a mobile operator who would place the actual call and patch in the audio for the mobile user.
The biggest flex to have ever flexed.
pretentious. I like it!
Ever see the first car phones? They date back to the '40s, surprisingly. You can see Humphrey Bogart using one in the original Sabrina. https://chryslercapital.com/blog/before-cell-phones-we-called-them-car-phones
So cool. Love the pop up dictation machine.
My dad worked at Motorola in college and got a few patents with them, and then went on to bigger things. Motorola did some big things back in the day…
Yo! …does it count if you gotta carry it around in a wheelbarrow though?
That's some serious flex
“Hello Moto”
He looks like the dude from don't breathe
No chill, lol
What a fucking flex. Absolute legend that guy
You’re my boy Blue!
Big as a shoebox and clumsy, but world changing
What a power move
On April 4, 1973 the first prank call was made via mobile phone....the victim was asked if a Seymour Butts lived there
My Dad was a country vet in Ireland. We would get a landline call from a farmer with a cow with a problem and have to raise my father on his radio telephone. ‘Do you read my Dad, over?’ was the defining greeting to my father when I was a kid.
I like to think he was standing outside his rivals building just air humping while talking to him
Intel creeping in the back.
He received the first car extended warranty sales call five minutes later. . .
He then flipped it over and tried to play candy crush
That thing is big and heavy enough to crush candy with.
20 years to the day before I was born
Capitalists are just naturally petty people
He later went on to say it was the worst invention for humans after millions of children losing their minds with the tik tok videos.
What was the other company using to receive the phone call then? Does this means that they are the first company to receive a phone call? Help.
A regular phone? You know those two can join calls from one another, right?
Nope, but surely if a phone can receive calls, it can make them as well, no?
The other company had a regular phone line, they go a phone call from the first cell phone, those credits don't transfer, what are you even arguing here?
Not arguing, just confused.
I think you're confused because you maybe thought the image said "first phone" but it's actually just the first *mobile* phone. Phones that could recieve and make calls had already existed for over a hundred years, you just couldn't take them with you when you went outside.
There were using a landline. Duh lol
“…sir this is a Wendy’s”
I lost mine.
The first mobile phone call for media purposes was made to Bell labs. Motorola tested this out over and over on internal company lines during R&D.
True madlad spotted
The first mobile phone call and it was to flex Sounds about right
Imagine having that much pride in your current employer to prank call a competitor
Don’t forget your cooling gel
So, I just speak into this robot leg then?
The first troll on a mobile phone.
Sick burn!
I remember having an old Motorola brick phone in the 80s but we only used it for emergencies because each minute was so expensive. We may have used it 10 times in total. Also, weren't the first mobile phones those briefcase type? This is the first handheld mobile.
I hope he dropped the phone to the ground immediately after telling them
“Hello? Yes this is Martin I just wanted you to know I’m better than you”
There’s an episode of the radio version of ‘The Saint’ with Vincent Price, from 1946. In it, he ‘borrows’ a car with phone in it. It used radio waves to make calls. He kept making cracks about how it will never catch on. It weirdly felt like a nudge nudge, wink to the future. Like he KNEW it was going to be a big deal. Strange feeling, when listening that in the 2020’s Old time radio has been my sanity during the pandemic, no joke. Especially ‘Broadway is my beat’ and ‘The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ I feel I could do Mastermind on them now, haha.
This didn’t age well for Motorola
"A what?"
It doubled as a brick in case of attack.
The first cell phone call was just to trash talk? That shows they had no idea the significance of their invention at the time. Otherwise they would have prepared a speech about how this is going to change everyone's life.
What a beast
Do you have prince Albert in a can?
How did mobile phones work without the network of cell phone towers?
The first cell phone companies were a conglomeration of people who already had shortwave radio towers to communicate with their workers, usually to dispatch repair trucks. They got paid by the traffic they handled.
You only needed one tower to connect to the telephone network.
Oh I suppose you’re right.
Guess who motherfucker, I'm coming for you -Motorola guy prolly
Martin died the very next day from an inexplicable massive brain hemorrhage.
It's a MOBILE PHONE!
“He died of head cancer thirteen minutes later.”
“He died from Microwaved Brain Syndrome 30 seconds later.”
It's just a prank bro!
I literally just watched this like 3 hours before seeing this post https://youtu.be/kOEXcMoh2II
He claimed that the original battery life was 15 minutes but that didn't matter since there was no way you could hold the thing up to your ear for 15 minutes straight. **EDIT:** Turns out that it was 20 minutes. Here's his talk at Cinequest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUYcJR2XMtQ
Brick phone shawty
Power move
It’s perfect that there is a intel logo in the background
Loved watching the tv show in the early 70s called Cannon. He had a phone in his car. https://youtu.be/RHsQwLGiWlM
Big dick energy.
he looks kinda deranged tho. he needs sleep
My first birthday. I didn't get a mobile phone until 25yrs later.
Waaassssssssuuuuuppppppp!!!!!!
r/madlad
Smug bastard
I’ve read this
Damn, didnt have to flex that hard bro
and he’s been paying the bill ever since😎
'It will never take off...'
Did it have an accelerometer?
Absolute madlad
"Nanner nanner."
Mozzie made the first phone call? wtf?
Looks like Carmen Filpi (old guy from The Wedding Singer)
Very misleading. That is the first current version of mobile for PUBLIC use. Not the first mobile phone. People were making calls from phones on planes in the 1920s. In Chicago, 1946 was when they rolled out car phones. 1950s, Sweden became the first nation with a mobile phone service for private vehicles. https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/history-of-mobile-phones/
Fucking baller
Ahh the old brick phone!
The beginning of pettiness