When did you get a mobile phone?

[manicinsomniac]

I've always known I was late getting one (got a bright blue Motorola brick for Christmas 2000 and I was very excited! ) but I don't remember seeing them until 1997 or so and tv/films from the 90s don't seem to feature them much.

But I've just been reading about mobile phone history (thrilling, I know - fell down the internet black hole!) and apparently there were handsets available from 1985 (1983 in the US) and the first non brick flip phone came out in 1988. I'm really surprised.

When did you get your first phone?

2000/2001.
At uni. In the first year 1999 not many people I knew had them, and by the end (2002) almost everyone did. It was suddenly very quick to spread.

.. a Nokia 3210 of course. With orange!

1997, Motorola I think. I couldn't send text messages on it, and it didn't show the time.

About 1993 or 4, after a nightmare when I was stuck in a horrible traffic jam and had no way of contacting the nursery to say I was trying to get home.
Also still have the same number now.

Four years ago, for my 60th birthday - my DC bought me an iPhone as a present!
Initially, I wondered what possible use it would be, but within weeks I was practically welded to it!
They did leave an old (nonsmart) mobile, affectionately known as the brick, in my car for emergencies a few years before that, but I don’t recall it seeing much service.
Even now, I very rarely use the mobile to make calls - it’s more use as a portable internet access.

About 1998, I was 14/15. It was a Sagem on Vodafone. Only about 2 other people in my year at school had one so didn't really have anyone to call! My dad worked in telecoms and I remember him having one that came in a massive case!

1996, when I started working in a job that required travelling around. I only knew one other person with a mobile phone at that time, and that was my BiL who drove lorries. BiL had one since at least 1985, when you had a carry a battery pack the size of a six-pack of beer cans and about as heavy!

2000 when I was pregnant with dd. Until then I didn’t really see the need but once I was pregnant my then husband wanted us to both get them for emergencies (I’d had 2 mc before dd was part of the issue, the 2nd had been the year before and I’d been at work when I’d become unwell, it could potentially have happened on the bus there so I saw his point).

Also he was army and often in difficult to reach places but where he’d be allowed to have a mobile phone on him (the rules were still developing as their use became more popular), not just pure work related but if he was on training exercise the pay-phones at the accommodation were often unreliable and even if they were usable shared with many others. He also played a lot of sport within the army and a mobile phone meant he could still do that without my worrying about not being able to get him if needed.

They weren’t Nokia’s but very similar style, think maybe Siemens? somewhat clunky and hard to use compared to modern phones. They were small enough to be hand held not the previous generation of phone "bricks" but they were incredibly heavy! I got a sore shoulder from it being in my bag!

Our next ones were Nokia’s and they were great reliable phones.

But I had several bosses who’d had car phones and then the huge brick ones from the 80’s onwards. Mainly as status symbols!

Dad (army) had used them since the 80’s via work but it was shared among the unit, they had it if they were on certain duties where they might need to contact nok for people from training exercises etc. But the idea was soon abandoned when it became clear how easy they were to intercept etc.

1997 when I began working full time. I had a two hour journey each way. Was very much for emergencies only.

About 1994 I think. My then dh got his in 1996 when I became pregnant. Mine cost £100.

1998. My dad bought us all a Motorola brick with some money my Nan had left him.

I was embarrassed to have it out and didn’t realise I could send a text message with it for ages.

I had a car-phone in about 1985. It was on the cell net network, which was operated by BT. It was an analogue network, was very clunky, and hardly worked.
I got a new job in London, and got a car- phone that was digital and on the voda phone network, which was a great improvement on the analogue network. I also had one of the brick type Motorola mobiles, but that was pretty useless.
I then got a Sony “Mars Bar” phone, on the Hutchison Telecom network (analogue) which sort of morphed into the Orange network. It was quite exciting to be one of the original customers of a brand new network. I still have that original number today.

I got my first mobile in 1999 ... I was thirty!

Work gave me a Motorola Star-Tac in 1999. No-one else outside of my job had one so it was hardly used. I worked in the industry and helped bring the BlackBerry to market, I remember all the research saying that texting would never catch on. How times change!

1998. I was 14 and one of the only kids at my high school to have one. It was a Nokia and I used to buy colourful faceplates for it and rotate them around depending on my mood.

@pipandmum. You must be the same age as me as I go my first mobile phone for my 40th in 2093 also. It was a Nokia and it had a pink cover which my then 5yo DD chose for me!

I was 25 when I got my first mobile, a Nokia brick with an antennae, would have been late 90's. It was a leaving present from my then employer. I still have it and the tiny Samsung flip phone that followed!

I got mine in 1997 and still have the same number! With the 7 added in obviously.

97. I didn't get a smart phone until about 2008/9.

A Motorola brick in 1996 when I was 18. It had a SIM card the size of a credit card and could take AA batteries! Cost a bloody fortune if I remember rightly!

Nokia brick in 1996. I was at the cutting edge. I am no longer at the cutting edge, though, as I'm still using my 2008 Nokia non-smartphone.

I had a Motorola brick too! My nan bought it me for Christmas in 1999, I was 13. Pay as you go on One2One, you had to top up a £20 voucher every 90 days.

Also 2000 a real brick when leaving home to go live away at College aged 18

A Nokia 330 in 2001. I was 25.

A couple of people had them at uni in the 90's. Not many though. My pal had a pager. A fucking pager!

About 1994. A Motorola M300 one the one2one network. I was about 21. It cost a bloody fortune!