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Old 4th Sep 2011, 11:44 pm   #21
arjoll
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

Telecom NZ's cellular network (using AMPS) was launched in 1987 in Auckland - by the time it came to Invercargill a few years later I think the phones (the likes of the DynaTAC) were over NZ$1000.

By the time I got my first phone at work in 1995 (MicroTAC 1950, replaced by an Ultra Lite a year later) the special discounted Ernst & Young plan was only about $60/mo and $0.60/min for calls.

Next year, 25 years after cellphones were launched in NZ, the last remaining part of the NZ AMPS lineage will disappear when the Telecom CDMA-1xRTT network is turned off. They've been through AMPS, D-AMPS (both turned off in 2007) and CDMA and are now switching completely to UMTS/HSPA.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cheerfulcharlie View Post
There were specialist sellers, like in London there was places like London Car Telephones who were evolving from selling car telephones to the hand mobile range.
I'm pretty sure that here you purchased them - but again I didn't really take much notice of them until they were actually visible to normal people, which was early 90's.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cheerfulcharlie View Post
Then some clever guys at Cable & Wireless.(later Vodaphone) invented the radio 'cell' broadcasting system and the rest was history.
I always thought that most of the work on cellular phones was by Motorola and AT&T, becoming the AMPS system.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 60 oldjohn View Post
In the past I have had them on my display of early electronics, I have had the smaller one's working with an O2 Sim card
If they work with a SIM card then they can't be older than around 1991 or so when GSM started to appear. Older networks like AMPS used an ESN programmed into the phone to identify it.
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Old 5th Sep 2011, 9:29 pm   #22
The General
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

I used to have a Motorola 8500X 'brick' phone, which I bought for £5 from a radio rally in about 1995 complete with leather carrying case & spare battery. It was the best phone I ever owned, it worked anywhere, even in the Fens and if you were in a weak signal area, all you got was background noise, rather than the modern digital ones which just drop the call without warning. I'd still use it now only the analogue frequencies are no longer available. Still, I did manage to sell it to a collector for £80...
Mark.

Last edited by Brian R Pateman; 6th Sep 2011 at 12:19 pm. Reason: See Rule B8.
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Old 5th Sep 2011, 10:31 pm   #23
60 oldjohn
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

Hi Mark, sounds like you had a bargan there. I have one I use to put an 02 card in when I did displays at steam ralies, but as you say no more. John.
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Old 8th Sep 2011, 4:25 pm   #24
donutty
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

I've got a couple of 8500X in my collection but both need new aerials as the rubber has degraded
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Old 26th Sep 2011, 8:27 pm   #25
Osiris69
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

Quote:
Originally Posted by donutty View Post
I've got a couple of 8500X in my collection but both need new aerials as the rubber has degraded
This has happened to mine also, I have a few of the early Motorola bricks, and all of the antenna I have are very brittle and/or broken.
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Old 2nd Nov 2011, 12:25 pm   #26
DAVEHALL
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Default Re: Who sold the first mobile phones?

First one I saw was issued to our mobile engineers to help with circuit line ups. That was in the days of Post Office Telephones in the late 70's. Don't know who made it. Has three channels with an indicator if channel was in use. Makes the Motorola bricks look small. Handset/radio unit was about the size of a test tele set and battery two-three times that.
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