Thread: OT: 25 Years Of The Cell Phone...

Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can ya
believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an "evergreen"
topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies someone
taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the table
by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:


http://www.suntimes.com/technology/1...moto13.article

25 years of cell phone service

GOING WIRELESS | First cell phone call at Chicago's Soldier Field in October
'83

October 13, 2008

BY BRAD SPIRRISON AND SANDRA GUY

"Who would have thought 25 years ago that Americans would walk around like
the Borg from "Star Trek," seemingly wired in to their cell phones around
the clock?

The inventors of the cell phone certainly didn't.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first commercial wireless call. It
happened Oct. 13, 1983, at Soldier Field, where Ameritech Mobile, now part
of Verizon Wireless, made the call from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X known as
the "brick" phone. The phone cost $3,995, was 13 inches long, and weighed
1.75 pounds.

Paul Gudonis, who was vice president of marketing for Ameritech Mobile
Communications and who organized the launch, said 20 customers of the new
cell phone service were invited to the event.

Ameritech asked 20 service technicians from the company's distributors to
race to see who could install the wireless chip the fastest in a transceiver
in the customers' cars. The techs ran from a starting line to their
customers' cars. The winner who activated the service the fastest received a
free mobile phone.

The late Jack Brickhouse, then the broadcaster for the Cubs, served as
master of ceremonies. Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile, made the
first cell phone call to Alexander Graham Bell's great-grandson, who
happened to be in Germany at the time.

Katie Boudas, who was head of public relations for Ameritech Mobile at the
time, recited cell phone expenses that would shock people today:

.. . Service cost $50 a month plus 40 cents a minute peak, 24 cents
off-peak. There were no free minutes in those days, Boudas said. The
original network had 12 cell sites in the Chicago area.

.. . The first year, Ameritech Mobile signed up 12,000 subscribers.
Verizon Wireless now has 68.7 million subscribers and generates $48.7
billion in annual revenue.

.. . Total wireless subscribers totaled 262.7 million, or 84 percent of
the U.S. population, as of June, according to the International Association
for Wireless Telecommunications. Nearly half, or 46 percent, of children
ages 8 to 12 use cell phones, according to the Nielsen Co.

Other members of the start-up team were Evan Richards, vice president of
engineering; Dennis Hackl, chief financial officer, and Allan Arlow, general
counsel. Hank Lucas served as general manager of the trial run.

"Originally, the cell phone was about liberating people from the wires of
the telephone call," said Jim Wicks, corporate vice president and director
of Motorola's consumer experience design team. "Now, it's about liberating
people from their desktops. It's about information, entertainment, movies,
music and social networks."

Motorola has posted a Web site to commemorate the anniversary at:


http://www.promo.motorola.com/25thAnv/index.html.


</>

On Mon 13 Oct 2008 03:26:34p, Gregory Morrow told us...

> Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can ya
> believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an "evergreen"
> topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies someone
> taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the table
> by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:

I certainly remember my first one which was hardwired into my car (then
considered a mobile phone), but it was cellular. Expensive as hell, too.

--
Wayne Boatwright
(correct the spelling of "geemail" to reply)

*******************************************
Date: Monday, 10(X)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
*******************************************
Today is: Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
Countdown till Veteran's Day
4wks 8hrs 22mins
*******************************************
If sex isn't messy, you're not doing

I bought my first cell phone in 1994. It was a workhorse of a phone, an
Audiovox, and it came with two batteries so you could always have one
charging. I think the plan I had was around $30 a month and it gave me
20 minutes. Extra minutes were very expensive.

I had it and a beeper so that even when I wasn't in the office, if
something came up, my employees could get in touch with me no matter
where I was.

It was a great phone, very well made and I never had any problems with
it, but it was bulky and heavy compared to the cell phones of today.

Cheryl wrote:

> "Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected] m...
> > Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can
ya
> > believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an
> > "evergreen"
> > topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies
someone
> > taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the
table
> > by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:
> >
>
> I remember TV shows from the 80s where they had big huge cellphones the
size
> of a regular phone.


I remember a _Columbo_ episode from the mid - 80's or so where "tracing" a
cell call featured in getting the perp..._Murder She Wrote_ IIRC had similar
plotlines. The perps were all wealthy, natch...


Late 80s and early 90s, I remember "car phones" because
> you had to be in the car to use them, and they required a special antennae
> mounted on the car.


Remember those fake car phone antennae that were sold for those who wanted
to "impress", but didn't have the actual bux for a real "car phone"...


My first cell phone was in 1995 and I remember feeling
> way behind the times when I got it.


I still don't have one...

:-)


--
Best
Greg

"Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] m...
> Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can ya
> believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an
> "evergreen"
> topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies someone
> taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the table
> by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:

<snip>

I hate to piss on the birthday cake but here goes;

The cell phone being convenient is also an umbilical cord to the office and
home.

There was a time when driving home or to work was private time, time to
listen to music, news or just be alone and think.

It is so bad California had to pass a law making it unlawful to text or read
text messages while driving. Multitasking is tantamount to your boss asking
you what you accomplished when you were supposed to be off and on your own
time.

When you go on a business trip what is the first thing you do when you land,
why turn on your cell phone of course.

When you get to the hotel don't you plug in your laptop, jump on the
internet then open your VPN key and log on to work to down load and answer
your emails?

There was a time when you got to the hotel and unpacked and told your
associates you'd meet at the bar. Now you have to catch up. What ever
happened to sitting by the pool after the last appointment?

Business travel used to be fun - a mini vacation, now it's nothing more than
an extension of your office.

For every new technology there is a price to pay. So much for the GLOBAL
VILLAGE and a Global economic meltdown.

Have a nice day.

Dimitri

"Sharon Chilson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
>
> I bought my first cell phone in 1994. It was a workhorse of a phone, an
> Audiovox, and it came with two batteries so you could always have one
> charging. I think the plan I had was around $30 a month and it gave me
> 20 minutes. Extra minutes were very expensive.
>
> I had it and a beeper so that even when I wasn't in the office, if
> something came up, my employees could get in touch with me no matter
> where I was.
>
> It was a great phone, very well made and I never had any problems with
> it, but it was bulky and heavy compared to the cell phones of today.
>

My first one was just for emergencies with a similar plan to yours -- 20
minutes. What made me get it was I was taking night classes along with
Saturday day classes and one Saturday my car broke down on the highway. It
was a pretty long drive from central MD to VA and when I broke down I had to
walk what would have been a long way to a payphone (there's that word
again). I got lucky and a family in a minivan stopped and gave me a ride,
but after that I was scared to get stranded at night without a way to
contact someone.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Mon 13 Oct 2008 03:26:34p, Gregory Morrow told us...
>
>> Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can ya
>> believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an "evergreen"
>> topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies someone
>> taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the table
>> by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:
>
> I certainly remember my first one which was hardwired into my car (then
> considered a mobile phone), but it was cellular. Expensive as hell, too.

I bought one for my wife one year. It was bout $350 for the phone and I
prepaid for service for a year and it included messages. I didn't get a
lot of monthly time. Then I started getting the bills. I was shocked.
I could not understand why they were so high. It turned out that every
time she got into the car she was checking her messages. She didn't
realize that every call was a minimum one minute or that she was being
charged to check them.

Worse than that, she was working in a nearby city and taking back roads
to and from work. The idea of the phone was that it was for emergencies.
There was no service along 90% of her route. Service was so bad that I
could not even call home from our town, which is two miles down the road.

Now I have a different cell provider. It's service was not as good
across the country, but was much better in this area. I have a basic
emergency use plan, 50 minutes per month. I have never used more than 10
minutes a month. Some months I never use it at all. That makes me wonder
about the people who use them all the time while driving. Yesterday I
saw one of the neighbours down the road yakking on her phone as she was
pulling out of her driveway.

"Dave Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:48f39ca1$0$30511$[email protected] m...

<snip>

> Now I have a different cell provider. It's service was not as good across
> the country, but was much better in this area. I have a basic emergency
> use plan, 50 minutes per month. I have never used more than 10 minutes a
> month. Some months I never use it at all. That makes me wonder about the
> people who use them all the time while driving. Yesterday I saw one of the
> neighbours down the road yakking on her phone as she was pulling out of
> her driveway.
>

What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell phone in
the car at 6:30 in the morning. If it was just a few I could understand.
But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a very busy highway
with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving at the same time.

"Cheryl" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:THQIk.14801$[email protected]..
> "Dave Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:48f39ca1$0$30511$[email protected] m...
>
> <snip>
>
>> Now I have a different cell provider. It's service was not as good across
>> the country, but was much better in this area. I have a basic emergency
>> use plan, 50 minutes per month. I have never used more than 10 minutes a
>> month. Some months I never use it at all. That makes me wonder about the
>> people who use them all the time while driving. Yesterday I saw one of
>> the neighbours down the road yakking on her phone as she was pulling out
>> of her driveway.
>>
>
> What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell phone
> in the car at 6:30 in the morning. If it was just a few I could
> understand. But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a very
> busy highway with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving at the
> same time.

Time shift - driving @ 6:30 AM in CA chatting with a business associate in
Dallas where it's 8:30 AM.

Increased productivity !

Dimitri

On Oct 13, 6:39 pm, Wayne Boatwright <wayneboatwri...@geemail.com>
wrote:

> I certainly remember my first one which was hardwired into my car (then
> considered a mobile phone), but it was cellular. Expensive as hell, too.

Giving away my age, but in the late forties, I was ( a mere kid) at a
wedding reception and there was a car phone in the bride's limo. - I
was extremely impressed - ya had to really BE someone and KNOW someone
to get one of those channels.

Got my first cel in 1991 - a clunker of an instrument, but if you kept
the service for 3 years, there was a 300 buck rebate. I hardly use
the one I have now - it never is on for incoming calls, and there are
months I never use it at all. I call it peace of mind money, when I
pay the bill. Half the time, it's not even in the car with me, but I
won't give it up. There's a ton of longdistance thru it, but I can't
stand the pooor transmission and usually use a landline.

"Dimitri" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:EVQIk.2477$[email protected]..
>
> "Cheryl" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:THQIk.14801$[email protected]..
>> "Dave Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:48f39ca1$0$30511$[email protected] m...
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> Now I have a different cell provider. It's service was not as good
>>> across the country, but was much better in this area. I have a basic
>>> emergency use plan, 50 minutes per month. I have never used more than 10
>>> minutes a month. Some months I never use it at all. That makes me wonder
>>> about the people who use them all the time while driving. Yesterday I
>>> saw one of the neighbours down the road yakking on her phone as she was
>>> pulling out of her driveway.
>>>
>>
>> What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell phone
>> in the car at 6:30 in the morning. If it was just a few I could
>> understand. But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a very
>> busy highway with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving at the
>> same time.
>
> Time shift - driving @ 6:30 AM in CA chatting with a business associate in
> Dallas where it's 8:30 AM.
>
> Increased productivity !
>


LOL! I'm in MD.

"Cheryl" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:VYQIk.53243$[email protected]..
> "Dimitri" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:EVQIk.2477$[email protected]..
>>
>> "Cheryl" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:THQIk.14801$[email protected]..
>>> "Dave Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>> news:48f39ca1$0$30511$[email protected] m...
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>> Now I have a different cell provider. It's service was not as good
>>>> across the country, but was much better in this area. I have a basic
>>>> emergency use plan, 50 minutes per month. I have never used more than
>>>> 10 minutes a month. Some months I never use it at all. That makes me
>>>> wonder about the people who use them all the time while driving.
>>>> Yesterday I saw one of the neighbours down the road yakking on her
>>>> phone as she was pulling out of her driveway.
>>>>
>>>
>>> What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell
>>> phone in the car at 6:30 in the morning. If it was just a few I could
>>> understand. But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a
>>> very busy highway with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving at
>>> the same time.
>>
>> Time shift - driving @ 6:30 AM in CA chatting with a business associate
>> in Dallas where it's 8:30 AM.
>>
>> Increased productivity !
>>
>
>
> LOL! I'm in MD.

Well you can't call your girl/boy friend form home you know.

;-)

Dimitri

Cheryl wrote:

> What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell
> phone in the car at 6:30 in the morning.

Or, as I mentioned in another post..... talking on a cell phone while
pulling out of their driveway.

> If it was just a few I could
> understand. But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a
> very busy highway with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving at
> the same time.

And isn't it reassuring to know that 50% of your fellow commuters are on
paying more attention to their conversation than they are to the traffic.

Dimitri wrote:

>>> What I can never understand is the people I see yakking on the cell
>> phone in the car at 6:30 in the morning. If it was just a few I could
>> understand. But it's like every other car, and my commute is along a
>> very busy highway with thousands of my closest neighbors all driving
>> at the same time.
>
> Time shift - driving @ 6:30 AM in CA chatting with a business associate
> in Dallas where it's 8:30 AM.
>
> Increased productivity !
>

And an accident looking for a place to happen.

"Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] m...
> Yup, kids...it's been a quarter - century of the cellphone already, can ya
> believe it!? Posted because "cellphones in restaurants" are an
> "evergreen"
> topic here on rfc...remember the old daze when you'd see in movies someone
> taking a call in a foofie restaurant, the phone being brought to the table
> by the maitre'd and being plugged in...:
>
>
> http://www.suntimes.com/technology/1...moto13.article
>
> 25 years of cell phone service
>
> GOING WIRELESS | First cell phone call at Chicago's Soldier Field in
> October
> '83
>
> October 13, 2008
>
> BY BRAD SPIRRISON AND SANDRA GUY
>
> "Who would have thought 25 years ago that Americans would walk around like
> the Borg from "Star Trek," seemingly wired in to their cell phones around
> the clock?
>
> The inventors of the cell phone certainly didn't.
>
> Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first commercial wireless call. It
> happened Oct. 13, 1983, at Soldier Field, where Ameritech Mobile, now part
> of Verizon Wireless, made the call from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X known as
> the "brick" phone. The phone cost $3,995, was 13 inches long, and weighed
> 1.75 pounds.
>
> Paul Gudonis, who was vice president of marketing for Ameritech Mobile
> Communications and who organized the launch, said 20 customers of the new
> cell phone service were invited to the event.
>
> Ameritech asked 20 service technicians from the company's distributors to
> race to see who could install the wireless chip the fastest in a
> transceiver
> in the customers' cars. The techs ran from a starting line to their
> customers' cars. The winner who activated the service the fastest received
> a
> free mobile phone.
>
> The late Jack Brickhouse, then the broadcaster for the Cubs, served as
> master of ceremonies. Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile, made the
> first cell phone call to Alexander Graham Bell's great-grandson, who
> happened to be in Germany at the time.
>
> Katie Boudas, who was head of public relations for Ameritech Mobile at the
> time, recited cell phone expenses that would shock people today:
>
> . . Service cost $50 a month plus 40 cents a minute peak, 24 cents
> off-peak. There were no free minutes in those days, Boudas said. The
> original network had 12 cell sites in the Chicago area.
>
> . . The first year, Ameritech Mobile signed up 12,000 subscribers.
> Verizon Wireless now has 68.7 million subscribers and generates $48.7
> billion in annual revenue.
>
> . . Total wireless subscribers totaled 262.7 million, or 84 percent of
> the U.S. population, as of June, according to the International
> Association
> for Wireless Telecommunications. Nearly half, or 46 percent, of children
> ages 8 to 12 use cell phones, according to the Nielsen Co.
>
> Other members of the start-up team were Evan Richards, vice president of
> engineering; Dennis Hackl, chief financial officer, and Allan Arlow,
> general
> counsel. Hank Lucas served as general manager of the trial run.
>
> "Originally, the cell phone was about liberating people from the wires of
> the telephone call," said Jim Wicks, corporate vice president and director
> of Motorola's consumer experience design team. "Now, it's about liberating
> people from their desktops. It's about information, entertainment, movies,
> music and social networks."
>
> Motorola has posted a Web site to commemorate the anniversary at:


Reminds me of a woman I knew in 1989. She received a car cell phone as a
reward for doing a lot of volunteer work for a charity. Her car was broken
into (smashed in window) and the phone stolen the very same evening. Total
repairs were as much as the phone would have cost her and insurance didn't
cover it.

Paul

Gregory Morrow wrote:
>
> Cheryl wrote:
>
> My first cell phone was in 1995 and I remember feeling
> > way behind the times when I got it.
>
> I still don't have one...

I've never used one.

By the way, they cook your brains.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/03well.html

Dave Smith wrote:
>
> Dimitri wrote:
>
> > Time shift - driving @ 6:30 AM in CA chatting with a business associate
> > in Dallas where it's 8:30 AM.
> >
> > Increased productivity !
>
> And an accident looking for a place to happen.

There are cellphone suppression devices used in theaters
and restaurants, probably illegal. However, catching
a mobile cellphone suppressor would probably be difficult.
And it would make you and the people around you safer.

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:43:03 -0400, [email protected] (Sharon
Chilson) wrote:

>It was a great phone, very well made and I never had any problems with
>it, but it was bulky and heavy compared to the cell phones of today.

Was it one of those cellphones that had it's own briefcase, or were
those earlier models?


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:00:15 -0700, "Dimitri" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I hate to piss on the birthday cake but here goes;
>
>The cell phone being convenient is also an umbilical cord to the office and
>home.
>
>There was a time when driving home or to work was private time, time to
>listen to music, news or just be alone and think.

I *love* my cellphone, but it's not used for work and I don't spend
much time on it yakking.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West