when did you get your first cell phone?

49 comments

• gothamyte

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  5 years ago

  and i get upset because this is my perspective: historically, jan 1999 - 17 yr old high school student adnan has a cell phone jan 1999 - president clinton still has 2 more years as president. i don't remember any coverage of him having a cellphone. april 1999 - columbine happens (you don't see/hear anything about any of those kids with cell phones) october 2000 - uss cole is attacked (i don't remember hearing anything about cell phones) sept 11 2001 - attacks on u.s. you don't see images of folks on their cell phones (as you would today) the way i remember it, things like columbine followed up by the uss cole and 9/11 attacks was what stirred people into getting cell phones. the virginia tech mass shooting in 2007. things like that, TO ME, got people into getting cell phones. like, the first iphone came out in 2007. first apple store opened in 2001. how is it folks are saying it was COMMON PLACE to have a cell phone in 1999? i'm just not seeing that. y'all gotta prove it to me, if you had one in 1999 and think it was common place.
• gothamyte

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  5 years ago

  i get upset because i feel like cell phones are so common nowadays, that i'm wondering if folks are mis-remembering what it was like in the late 90s because they're so used to cell phones today. how could cell phones be "common place" as some folks claim online, in 1999, 2 years before 9/11? two years before the first apple store? before y2k (before the year 2000, before the 21st century)? on the otherhand, i can believe it when folks in message boards say it was common OVERSEAS in 1999 to have a cell phone. because economies are different, it's a little more spacious overseas so you may not find a landline phone, a bunch of different countries are land-locked over there with a bunch of different languages floating around, ok, i can get that. but here in the u.s. where we're a bunch of states united and aim to mostly speak english. i don't see cell phones just catching on with a whim without serious tragedies making you want to get a cell so you can contact your loved ones at a moment's notice. besides it's not like in 1999 those cell phones had internet on them or cameras for selfies. so, how could they be that popular or COMMON PLACE. weren't only weekends and nights free or something lame like that back then and when you called during the day you were charged or when you were roaming you were charged so why not just pay 25 cents to 35 cents for a payphone? i'm getting upset seeing folks say they had cell phones in 1995, in 1997, in 1998 in 1999 and they were common place. nah. i want soft proof of that. i don't remember it like that.
• Fun_Loving_Fella

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  5 years ago

  I got mine in 2002. In 1999 I knew some people who bought phones for their kids, but it was not common.
• TFP

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  5 years ago

  I got mine in 2000. They were still relatively new but not brand new. Couple of friends in 1998 had the big brick Motorola phones with a chip in it to get unlimited minutes (illegal). They were starting to catch on but it wasn't until around 2002-2003 that there were about 5 different kiosks in mall walkways with some chick asking if you wanted a cell phone. In 2000 I was in community college and pay phones were still a thing. I still remember the long lines in the cafeteria to use the pay phones after classes let out around 2pm. Folks would see me on my cellphone and ask if they could use it real quick. If it was a cute girl, sure! If it was a dude I told him I didn't have much daytime minutes (which was true). Unlimited minutes didn't start until after 7pm. Daytime minutes were scarce on my plan, I was a broke ass college student. Still remember my first phone, a GTE Wireless flip phone. [view link]
• jackslash

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  5 years ago

  Sometime in the early 1980's. It was marketed as a "mobile" phone. My employer gave it to me so they could reach me anywhere day or night. The phone was about the size and shape of a brick and weighed almost as much. Most of the weight was due to the battery, which was unlike today's small, powerful batteries. You carried the phone by placing it in a holster that hung off your belt. Not long after acquiring this phone, I was walking in downtown Chicago when the phone rang. I answered it and began a conversation. People around me stared like I was Mork from the planet Ork.
• twentyfive

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  5 years ago

  My first cell phone was in 1989, it wasn’t very portable at the time, it was like the size of a small gym bag and rather expensive to use, was billed by the minute, second one was around 1993 it was the Motorola brick and it was much easier to carry even though by today’s standards it was quite large and cumbersome, by 1999 my company had switched to combo phone radios, and then Nextel came along, most companies in my industry were using them and they were much cheaper to contact managers with the office and subcontractors with contractors. The rest most of us are familiar with, I actually have records which I checked when making this post
• codemonkey

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  5 years ago

  I got my first one in 1998. The plan only came with 60 mins talk time because getting more was pretty expensive. My wife and I shared that phone and kept it in the car for emergencies.
• Warrior15

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  5 years ago

  I got a Motorola flip phone in 1996.
• Jascoi

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  5 years ago

  i got a bag cell phone in 1995 primarily for dispatch at work to contact me TO go to work. i was in the greater phoenix area and coverage there was good. otherwise there were lots of gaps and lotta roaming areas. I had to pay $35 a month for 30 minutes of talk. when I was home my cell phone would ring four times and then switch to the landline phone that I had programmed in. so in that case I would not even pick up the cell phone to answer it.
• Jascoi

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  5 years ago

  prior to the bag cell phone i used a pager that the dispatch office was the only caller on. when my pager sounded I had to go find a landline phone within ten minutes to call dispatch back.
• twentyfive

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  5 years ago

  Yes those beepers were really a pain back in the day they originally just beeped and you needed to find a pay phone they got a bit better later on with being able to transmit a call back number, but it was a royal pain keeping enough quarters to return calls throughout the day.
• Jascoi

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  5 years ago

  but in comparison to the way it was prior to the pager and the first types of cell phones... it gave me so much more freedom to move around when I was not at work (waiting for a call to go to work...) glad i’m retired now...
• Jascoi

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  5 years ago

  and I still don’t listen to podcasts. and don’t watch HBO because I don’t have cable or dish.
• datinman

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  5 years ago

  It was mid to late 90's when I switched from pager to cell. I found this site that gives a TV related time line. [view link] Flip phone with the pull out antenna seemed to be not uncommon in the '96 - '99 period. Nothing will ever be better than the1969 Florsheim shoe phone.
• shadowcat

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  5 years ago

  I don't remember but it must have been after 2005 because my ATF bought me an answering machine in 2004 so that she could leave me messages.
• reverendhornibastard

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  5 years ago

  As best I can recall I got my first cell phone in 1996 or 1997. My employer got it for me and paid all my phone bills. Like an idiot, I thought it meant that I had truly arrived and was now a big shot. It didn’t take me too long to figure out what a ball and chain a company provided cell phone can be.
• flagooner

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  5 years ago

  I didn't get my first one until 2001 or 2002, but they weren't uncommon in 1999. I remember being a late adopter. But having one may still have been seen as a bit of a status symbol. That was before the brand and model really made a difference.
• Nidan111

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  5 years ago

  I started out in 1986 using powerful two way radio to communicate back and forth to the hospital. In 1993, I switched over to a bag phone. In 1994, I transitioned to the Motorola Flip phone. Have upgraded ever since. Now, I can literally work an 8 hr day from my bathtub if i choose ... all because of the smart phone technology.
• doctorevil

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  5 years ago

  My first was in 1996 or 97. I think that’s about the time they were becoming pretty commonplace, but I think it would be unusual for a high school student.
• Musterd21

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  5 years ago

  Back in 1979 I had a mobile phone in my car. It went through a mobile operator. Then in 1989 I got my first bag phone. Then around 93-94 a brick phone. Then flip phone and...... Notice how the phones went from big to small? Now they seem to be getting big again. Hope we don’t go back to bag phones. lol
• BGSD3100

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  5 years ago

  I had an employer provided bag phone in 1995. I got my first personal phone in 2002.
• Cristobal

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  5 years ago

  I brought my first cell phone in August 2001.
• WillMunny

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  5 years ago

  My first was in 2002, at a time when they were common enough that most people I knew already had one then. @Jackslash - nowadays there are probably fewer adults without cell phones than people who still know who Mork from Ork was. But I think we should start trying to bring back the expletive "Shazzbot!"
• IHearVoices

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  5 years ago

  I got my first one in '98, but didn't have it too long. Bought one in 2000 - oddly enough, after working for Sprint that summer - and have had one ever since. I don't remember phones being commonplace until maybe 2003, but I lived in a college town most of that time.
• Jascoi

  •

  5 years ago

  that bag phone was a pain in the ass to carry around. my next phone was a miniaturized (nokia?) with a flip down cover. it was less than 1/10 of the physical size of that bag phone.
• Daddillac

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  5 years ago

  I got my first one in 1992, it was a bag phone with Airtouch
• gSteph

  •

  5 years ago

  2014. Slow to discover lap dancing, slow to adopt cell phones.
• Nidan111

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  5 years ago

  @mustet. The phone got smaller over time for convenience. They started getting bigger as we realized porn could be watched on a smartphone.
• Huntsman

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  5 years ago

  1994. A big Motorola, almost the size of a dictionary. It was required for work. We called it a car phone and just lived in there.
• flagooner

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  5 years ago

  As I recall it was only egotistical, overly pretentious, whiney bitches that had mobile phones before 1990.
• RandomMember

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  5 years ago

  I recommend the Jitterbug Flip phone for you little @Fruitcup. It's easy to use with big buttons and not too complex--designed for the ekderly.
• RandomMember

  •

  5 years ago

  ...also the elderly
• FishHawk

  •

  5 years ago

  My first one was in my work car in the early 90’s. First one I had that I could carry around was 2001.
• twentyfive

  •

  5 years ago

  @flagooner In my defense I’ve only recently became a whiny little bitch, never expected to be called pretentious by a guy who brags about buying a Bugatti Veyron, for a freshman college student going to MIT
• minnow

  •

  5 years ago

  I got mine in 1999, and was chided by some relatives for finally catching up with the times. A lawyer who I was using at the time (1987) had a car phone. One quirk about the early car phones was that conversation would bleed over to FM radios in my hotel room when tuned to upper frequencies. Guy was talking about a chick he was going to bang later that night.
• flagooner

  •

  5 years ago

  @25 Damn, didn't recognize you fell into that group. My bad. And it's a Bugatti Chiron.
• flagooner

  •

  5 years ago

  A Bugatti Veyron would be pretentious
• twentyfive

  •

  5 years ago

  ^ Lol you pretentious fucker ;))
• flagooner

  •

  5 years ago

  😁
• Piggie

  •

  5 years ago

  1986
• whodey

  •

  5 years ago

  I remember my parents getting a bag phone around 1991-92 or so. I got my first cell phone in August of 1999 as I was starting my senior year of high school. My parents got it for me in response to Columbine happening in April of that year. How many cell phones does it take for you to consider them "common" at the time? There were more than 283 million cell phones sold worlwide in 1999, a 65% increase from the 171 million sold in 1998. ( [view link] ) While that is nowhere near today's sales (~1.5 billion) it means that they were fairly common at the time. The reason you probably don't remember them as common at the time is that people only used them as phones not as cameras, computers, etc. And with the limited number and high price of minutes they were only used sparingly. I think my first plan only allowed 60 minutes per month.
• gammanu95

  •

  5 years ago

  I got mine in 2002 or 2003. I did not really want or need a cell phone. Then, one snowy Christmas Eve, I lost control of my pickup and went into a ditch. I flagged down a passsing car who had to drive me to three or four gas stations to find a pay phone with a phone book to call a tow truck. Just think, anyone under 30 or so, really has no understanding of payphones, yellow pages, and life without the internet; much less almost EVERYONE carrying the internet in their pockets on cell phones.
• IceyLoco

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  5 years ago

  2006 at age 15
• Clubber

  •

  5 years ago

  1991-92 time frame when I worked for at&t. Still have it somewhere. It was a wonderful tool to have after hurricane andrew hit S. Florida. I got some cell service back on Wednesday two days after andrew hit!
• Hank Moody

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  5 years ago

  They were certainly around in the late 80’s early 90’s, first as car phones and then smaller mobile phones. The first compact Motorola flip phone (Star-Tac?) blew me away. This is a weird thing to get furious about.
• gawker

  •

  5 years ago

  I got my first cell phone in 1989. I started a new job in Feb. 19889 and my employer provided a phone with a metallic folding keyboard. 99% of the time it was used as a phone, but I could send email with it.
• rockie

  •

  5 years ago

  I believe sometime in 1996. The need arose to communicate more immediately and effectively on picking up and dropping off my kids from daycare and school. It was a Motorola flip phone and I had no concept of its evolution beyond phone calls back then.
• Muddy

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  5 years ago

  I held out a while. 2007. And for the first couple of years used it about as much as I would a pay phone. Then I got texting and internet on the thing and it all went to hell.
• Mnaz

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  5 years ago

  First was in 2001. Got it at Best Buy and signed up with VoiceStream because they had text messaging which they called pingpong. Jamie lee Curtis was their celebrity spokesperson.