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Saturday 27 December 2014

It's 30 Years Since The UK's First Mobile Phone Call

The first phone call made on a commercial mobile network in the UK was made on the Transportable Vodafone VT1
On January 1, 1985, the first mobile phone call was made in the UK.
It was made by Michael Harrison, the son of Sir Earnest Harrison who was the first chairman of Vodafone.
The call was made on the Transportable Vodafone VT1, a 4.7 kilo device that cost a whopping £1,650 (equivalent to £4,600 today) and was the size of at least two bricks stacked on top of each other.

He said: "Hi Dad, it's Mike. Happy New Year. This is the first ever call on a UK mobile network."
At least that's what Vodafone's PR team want us to believe. It was probably more like: "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? It's me... Dad? Dad? Dad? It's me. No, the other me. MIKE. Your son? Sorry the line's a bit dodgy..."
For the first nine days of 1985, Vodafone was the mobile network in the UK - but on 10 January Cellnet (now known as O2) launched its own service.
Mobile phones became yuppy status symbols in the mid-1980s despite the fact that they were the size of a briefcase and used analogue radio signals to communicate, so were very easy to eavesdrop on.
Since then, phones have got a lot smaller, slicker, smarter and a hell of a lot more common.
There are are a whopping 83 million active mobile subscriptions in the UK - distributed among 93% of people in the UK. 16% of people now live in mobile-only homes - with no need for a landline.

30 years since first mobile phone call

1985 - first mobile call

First mobile phone call made by Michael Harrison, the son of Sir Earnest Harrison who was the first chairman of Vodafone

1991 - first 2G phone

Previous mobile phones had used an analogue system, while GSM was a digital network optimised for voice transmission - but later expanded to include data

1992 - first SMS

First SMS sent by a test engineer Neil Papwroth to Vodafone’s Richard Jarvis, saying “Happy Christmas”

1994 - Nokia's famous tune launches

The Nokia 2110 was Nokia’s second GSM phone but the first with the choice of ringtones including the now famous Nokia ring tone - called the Grande Valse

1996 - Prepaid mobile service

Vodafone launched a non-contract mobile phone aimed at people with poor credit history

1997 - bye-bye aerials

The Hagenuk GlobalHandy was the 1st phone not to have an aerial jutting out of it

1997 - Colour screens arrive

The Siemens S10 was the first phone with a colour screen

1998 - Interchangeable covers

Nokia 5110 introduced clip on, swappable covers for phones - making almost all phones customisable

1999 - First WAP phone

Nokia’s 7110 was the first phone with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) which means it could browse the internet

2002 - Picture messaging

The first picture messaging service was launched by T-Mobile in 2002 with the Sony Ericsson T68i, which needed a separate camera module

2003 - 3G launches

3G network ‘3’ launched on 03/03/2003

2007 - iPhone

The first iPhone launches

2012 - 4G arrives

4G launched in the UK with EE
Via - Mirror

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