Inside story of the world’s first mobile phone call

Inside story of the world’s first mobile phone call

Motorola engineer Martin Cooper had little idea how much he was changing the world when he stood on sixth avenue almost five decades ago in New York City on April 3, 1973 and made the first call on a handheld mobile phone.

That very first call was made 46 years ago, and the beige chunky phone was nicknamed “the brick” for obvious reasons.

Cooper used the phone to call a rival, Joel S. Engel, from Bell Labs, so he could lightheartedly rub in the news. Bell Labs had initially envisioned the technology to support handheld mobile phones as early as 1946, so Cooper thought it’d be a fun idea to phone Mr Engel and gloat.

“Joel, I’m calling you from a cellular phone, a real cellular phone, a handheld, portable, real cellular phone,” Cooper said.

It wasn’t said to be the most scintillating conversation, but it was historic, nonetheless. Mr Cooper recently told CNN he kept the call very brief.

“I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was really quiet for a while. My assumption was that he was grinding his teeth. He was very polite and ended the call,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s short phone call was a major step forward in the development of mobile technology. But it’d be another 10 years for mobile phones to overtake landlines in terms of usage and change our lives forever.

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