When did you first have a mobile phone?

telstarbox · 8 Sep 2020

Around 2005 for me. It was a Nokia 3410 which had enough memory for 10 text messages. Other features were a ringtone composer, the Snake II game, and for some reason a very low-resolution Kama Sutra available via the WAP service.

I upgraded to a second-hand Sony Ericsson with a colour screen and a primitive Gmail client in 2008, and then bought my first phone with true internet access and a touchscreen (think it was a Samsung Pixon?) in 2010.

Did anyone here use the very early pre-GSM or Rabbit-type devices?

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gordonthemoron · 8 Sep 2020

1995, also a Nokia. I was working in Camden at the time and my boss had a Rabbit phone, we used to make fun of him as he had to hang around a convenience store on Camden High Street to make calls

yorksrob · 8 Sep 2020

Around 2000 for me. A Nokia with a little sticky out arial.

Still have it somewhere !

route101 · 8 Sep 2020

Around 2006 for my own phone, a silver Motorola thing, it had a camera and could access the web i think.

Before that i borrowed someones phone.

Darandio · 8 Sep 2020

1998, when as a naive young adult I entered into a contract with Phones 4U for this very model of Panasonic phone. Phones 4U were fairly young at the time as well, how things changed in the mobile phone world as we entered the new millennium!

telstarbox · 8 Sep 2020

I found that the University of Salford has an extensive archive of GSM-era phones: http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/gsm_mobiles.php.html

Mojo · 8 Sep 2020

My first 'phone was the Motorola CD930e in matt blue, purchased from the M&S Pantheon shop. I think I got it in early 2000 and remember paying £100.

jfollows · 8 Sep 2020

In 1994, when I had some kind of phone from Martin Dawes, I think it was, which required a kit to fit it to my 1992 Ford Mustang which I had imported to the UK. I remember having to arrange for the kit to be removed again when I sold the car in 1996. It was novel but it convinced me that using a phone whilst driving wasn't a good idea.

The phone itself had evolved so that it was no longer huge and would easily fit in a pocket. It had no SIM, because it was "analogue", and probably one of the models marketed by Martin Dawes themselves. The car kit was a bit clunky but managed to fit to the right of the driver reasonably well (left-hand drive) and had passable reception.

I lived and worked in the USA 1998-2000 and didn't have a mobile phone when I was there, in fact I had a pager, mobile phones there at the time were expensive PLUS you paid to receive calls rather than the other way round because of the way that you were given a geographic number and local calls were free to the originator. All a mess, and it really meant that it took a few years before technology enabled mobile phones to take off over there.

I also remember that in 2000, back in the UK, I had two mobile phones, one for personal use and one for work use. This was because they were relatively expensive to use. By the time I changed jobs in 2008 I reverted to one mobile phone, which I paid for myself, and advertised the number and used it for work as well - it was by then relatively cheap and I preferred the convenience of a single phone.

thejuggler · 8 Sep 2020

BT Roamer 500 in 1995. I may still have it in a box somewhere.

It wasn't however the first 'mobile' I used. That was a Vodaphone VT1, which wasn't mobile as it was a hand set attached to half a car battery and weighed about the same. A builder I worked for had one.

Want to see what the first mobile phone looked like?

It was the size of a breeze block, had 30 minutes of talk time for a 10-hour charge.

metro.co.uk

Sean Davidson · 8 Sep 2020

Nokia E90 as a 21st birthday present from Mum and Dad, still got it, still usable.

nlogax · 8 Sep 2020

1994 with a Mercury 121 M301.

At the time my new student overdraft meant avoiding the choice of 'own a mobile phone or buy food'. Three months later I left it in the back of a cab in Leeds and I spent the rest of the year paying for something I'd stupidly lost.

hexagon789 · 8 Sep 2020

I know it was a Nokia, still have it in a drawer somewhere. But I cannot for the life of me recall even roughly when I got it, only that it was some point in the 2000s

najaB · 8 Sep 2020

2005 when I moved back to the UK. It was a Saegem PAYG with Orange, if I remember correctly.

Edit: Pretty sure that it was the Saegem My X2

(Image of a mobile phone)

swt_passenger · 8 Sep 2020

I can’t even remember what my first mobile looked like, but it was analogue, and could theoretically do texts (but BT didn’t actually offer a text service). My wife and I had one each and I recall friends thought that was completely OTT...

Andy Pacer · 8 Sep 2020

I was about 16 so the year 2000 I guess. It was the trademark 'Motorola brick'

C J Snarzell · 8 Sep 2020

I got an Ericsson (before they were Sony) in the spring of 2000. It was on the One-to-one network. It was also one of the first models that did the changeable covers that go across the key pads. The screen was a green colour when it lit up - just basic text, with no imagines.

Does anyone on here know when the first Internet phones where introduced?

CJ

Trackman · 8 Sep 2020

I'm guessing mid late 90's.
It was on Orange (£15 a month for 30 mins of calls!) and you could text on it.
the first text I ever received was on a train from Preston with the message 'are you in the pub tonight?'

nlogax · 8 Sep 2020

C J Snarzell said:
Does anyone on here know when the first Internet phones where introduced?

Nokia 7110 was the first one that could use WAP, that was back in 1999. Don't know if UK networks supported that at the time though. My first experience with a WAP phone was the Sony Ericsson T68i in 2001 on T-Mobile US. I still miss that device!

ainsworth74 · 8 Sep 2020

So I'm fairly sure that my first phone was a Motorola 3788 in either late 1999 or maybe early 2000. My parents bought it as I was starting to range further away from home at the time so they thought it would be a wise investment. It was on One2One as I recall and I stuck with them through their iterations as T-Mobile and EE until 2016 when I finally defected to Three (and got my first Smartphone).

dgl · 8 Sep 2020

First mobile was a Christmas present from my dad, I believe when I was still in junior school, and was a Telital PV129 on Vodafone's "Pay As You Talk" service on their ETACS network, only used it for a month as it still had line rental, despite being PAYG, so you had to top up £15 every month, half of that paying for the line rental (£7.50).

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/122743011912_/RETRO-COLLECTIBLE-Vintage-TELITAL-PV129-UNTESTED-ANALOGUE-MOBILE.jpg

That then ended up being replaced by a Alcatel One Touch on Virgin Mobile (£40 from Co-Op iirc) then a Trium Mars (with WAP!).

First smartphone was a horrendously out of date at the time second hand ex-British Gas Panasonic CF-P2, believe it ran Windows Mobile 2003, http://www.returnmarket.com/media/termekek/orig_800x600_1349371779_dsc05353.JPG , some models even had TomTom GPS with a built in receiver!

birchesgreen · 8 Sep 2020

1998, a Motorola 8800I. I was the first non-salesman in the company to have one. I only got one because i had recently been to HK and everyone had one there!

najaB · 8 Sep 2020

dgl said:
First smartphone was a horrendously out of date at the time second hand ex-British Gas Panasonic CF-P2, believe it ran Windows Mobile 2003...

Hmm... not sure I'd call that a smart phone. More "mentally-challenged phone".

curly42 · 8 Sep 2020

Can't answer the question as I've never owned a mobile phone,but,just out of interest,anyone else on here not have one ?

Peter Mugridge · 8 Sep 2020

About 20 years ago... it was an Alcatel 302.

SurreyCommuter · 8 Sep 2020

2001 when I started my first part time/Saturday job after finishing my GCSEs. I went for the legendarily reliable Nokia 3310 on PAYG which if you remember was the sort of phone that if you dropped it on the pavement then the pavement was likely to come off worse.

Westcountryman · 8 Sep 2020

Mine was 1997. The sim card was the size of a credit card. I got it because I had responsibility in a factory. I remember one of the first calls I received was from the security guard in the evening, asking what to do about an alarm that had gone off. Unfortunately I couldn't help much as I was in a campsite on the banks of the Rhine.

Andy Pacer · 8 Sep 2020

Andy Pacer said:
I was about 16 so the year 2000 I guess. It was the trademark 'Motorola brick'

I soon changed to a Nokia 3210. Both were on one2one.

AM9 · 8 Sep 2020

First phone was a Nokia 2140 in about '96/7, an Orange only derivative of the Nokia 2110 for high band use.

GRALISTAIR · 8 Sep 2020

1998 was my first personal one - think it was a Nokia. Before that from 1996-1998 I was issued one when on company business traveling only. It was then handed back in so others could use. Cant remember the make but think it was also a Nokia.

SteveM70 · 8 Sep 2020

I first got a non-desk phone in 1995 when I first got promoted to a job with a company car. The phone was wired into the car so not really mobile in the current sense.

When that car was replaced the following year I got a true mobile phone

I first owned one when I went self employed in 2001

When did you first have a mobile phone?

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