What's your first memory of mobile phones?

[MyCheeryPearlTraybake]

Getting my mum's old phone in the early 2000s

Paying £200 for my first Nokia in 1994 plus £15 a month for 15 minutes of calls (pre-texts)

In the late 80’s my rich uncle had a car phone- and he once called us in it! It was very exciting! Could barely hear him, of course. Sound quality was dreadful.

Nokia, early 1990s.

I went abroad for the 1999/2000 semester as a student. No-one had mobile phones when I left. EVERYONE had a phone when I returned. Normally Nokia 3210s. Texts were 12p each.

Late 80’s my uncle had mobile phone, huge thing.

Playing Snake on my dad’s Nokia 3310 🫠😂

I had an absolutely tiny silver phone with a little antenna sticking up, think it was a Panasonic. Was around 2004. My mum had a phone and it was big black brick.

I was dating a creepy 46 year old when I was 18 in 1991 and he had a car phone that he was super proud of and thought made him impressive. Silly man. I got my first in 1996 that my parents gave me when I had a flat and no landline. Was huge.

As a young mum in the early ‘90s, I interviewed for a weekend telesales job for “rabbit” phones. I’d never heard of such a thing. The interviewers were very excited about it all but the launch kept being put back and I got a different job.

I got my first in the late 90's, also one of the early Nokias. It didn't work very reliably, which was likely down to the carrier, not the phone. I later upgraded to a Motorola Razor, which was a very hot phone at the time.

Snake 🐍

I was on a train and a business woman had a large black box. She got a black phone out of it, which looked like a normal landline phone and was attached to a wire in the box. She then proceeded to make a call.
I remember being quite stunned, like I was watching magic. I also remember feeling acutely embarrassed for me and for her as I was hearing her part of a private conversation and because she was doing something that looked so outlandish.
My next big memory was my boyfriend calling me on my Nokia to tell me that the Twin Towers had just been crashed into. I remember the phone vividly because of this and my surroundings.

It would have been the Christmas of 1999, I was Y10 and loads of the Year 11s had got mobile phones for Christmas. Christmas the following year I got one, possibly was a 3210?? And had to top up for so many minutes and so many days. So the first top ups were for example £10 for 7 days which gave you x minutes. Texts were about 12p and the phone could hold 10 texts in its memory. And each text could only be about 130 characters. I mainly used mine to play snake.

In the mid 90s DH and I shared a Nokia, if one of us when out we would take the phone so we could ring the home phone on it if we needed.

Having a brick Motorola but only having like two other people I knew with a phone to text to. Oh and six months down the line realising my Motorola couldn't play snake when everyone suddenly got Nokia's.

My dad had a car phone for work when they first came out in 80’s/90’s. It used to charge on a giant battery pack in the kitchen. I got my first mobile phone in 1997 I think. It was a Panasonic and it didn’t have text messaging on it. Just calls. I was early twenties (I wasn’t born in 1989)

My year out from University in 92 I was responsible for ordering car phones for the management team - they were huge ! Got my first phone a Phillips Savvy a couple of years later (I still have it) and a free contract as I worked on a Vodafone project

Going to the phone cover shop for my Nokia

Nokia late 90s. Most people already had one

Queuing to board the ferry at Hull, when I got chatting to the chap in the car behind. I was on my way to make a phone call in the terminal building, but he suggested I used his mobile phone, a large black brick (house brick size) with its own equally large box. I was amazed!
This must have been mid to late 1980s.

I think it was a Nokia and it had a little ariel you had to pull up to get a signal.
This would have been about 1995.

1988. Motorola Dynatac 8000.

I worked in a bank in the City of London in 1988 and a customer used to come in carrying a huge mobile phone with a separate massive battery he had to carry around in a case. We were all fascinated by it.

I didn't get my first mobile until1997 when I was 27. I was very resistant to the idea of mobile phones and was a very late adopter. I still have the handset in a drawer.

A green Motorola that you could put 3 AA batteries into. Imagine!!

Borrowing a Nokia the day the accommodation list came out so we could ring landlords for a house for university in 1995.