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When did cell phones come out?

W

Wag

Diamond Member
I was watching an 1986 episode of MacGyver on TVLand and he was doing his thing with a car-phone, and actually called it a "cellular phone".

I don't remember it being out that early, but obviously it was. I can recall it starting to become very popular about 10yrs ago. What I was wondering is when the technology became widely available?
 
I watched McGyver last night, and one of the things he did was take 3 buttons and some bobby pins from some uptight lady.. You wanna know what he made? made her hot. 🙂 no kidding
 
Originally posted by: Wag
I was watching an 1986 episode of MacGyver on TVLand and he was doing his thing with a car-phone, and actually called it a "cellular phone".

I don't remember it being out that early, but obviously it was. I can recall it starting to become very popular about 10yrs ago. What I was wondering is when the technology became widely available?
Click to expand...

It became widely available when there was only a dial up. Wives can't use the phone to chat with other wives because husbands were online dowwnloading pron! DSL and Cable became available because it takes so darn long to download a bunch of porns! I'm just guessing!!!

🙂😉😀
 
"Radio phones," that allowed up to 23 simultaneous phone calls in any given service area, have been out for several decades, IIRC, (some spectrum has been allocated since 1947).

AT&T and Bell Labs had a trial cellular network with 2000 or so subscribers up and running in Chicago in 1979. The FCC finally approved spectrum for AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) phones in 1982. In 1983, Ameritech made the first commercial cellular service available in Chicago.

(Google is great!)

Tidbit: That original Ameritech system in Chicago is now owned and operated by Verizon.
 
I remember my mom had one back in the mid-80s. The damn thing was as big as a shoebox, and only worked in the car, I think it plugged into the cigarette lighter.
 
Cellular telephones took off in the early 80s. The primary reason they didn't take off that quickly was because of the obvious need for towers. It was very costly and no one really knew how much demand there would be for them since Reagan was killing the economy with his antics.... The same technology has been around for a long time as far as the analog phones go...they all operate around 900Mhz and can transmit pretty far...used to be around 6 miles, but I don't know what the FCC has strapped on them for power regulations these days.
 
I had a cell phone in 1988. The phone cost me $1300. The basic monthly fee was $50 and calls, incoming or outgoing, were billed at $.50/minute whether you talked for one second or for the full minute. Wrong numbers cost you $.50 every time you got one. Some stupid asses would keep calling you, thinking you weren't telling them the truth that you were not the person they wanted t talk to.

My average monthly bill was $300. Fortunately, at that time, I was earning far more than I am now.

That phone, one of the first single unit handhelds, is sitting in the closet behind me.

Have a nice day.
 
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