Rise of the cell phone

[Perd Hapley]

Lotta nostalgia for the 90s on the internet these days. Some people seem to remember it as the days before cell phones. In my memories, by the late nineties, at least half of the enlisted guys I served with had them. In 2000, a friend of mine was so annoyed that I didn't have one, he bought me one, and put me on his plan. All his other friends had them, he said.

How do you remember it?

[Kingcreek]

I had a portable bag phone with a window mount antenna by 1987.
I didn’t use it a lot because it was so much for the line plus so much per minute and roaming charges were a thing back then when coverage areas weee spotty.

[cordex]

“The 90s” covers a lot of ground when it comes to cell phones.

Early 90s I only saw them in movies and TV. About 94 my dad had an employer-provided brick phone. I never used it and I probably only saw him use it a couple times. It wasn’t until the late 90’s that I started to see personally owned flip phones more commonly. I didn’t own my own until about 2004 and used lots of pay phones before that.

Throughout the 90s, battery life, limited minutes, and price meant that even when someone I knew had a phone it wasn’t in routine use.

[Bogie]

At one time, I had a beeper, a regular phone, and one of the motorola things that would act like a garbled walkie-talkie...

[Bogie]

At that time, around 1997ish, I was working with a guy who fancied himself an early adopter, and it was always "Chuck, can you make my blackberry get my email?" and crap like that...

[K Frame]

My ex and I got cell phones in the early 1990s. Expensive as hell, but I felt a lot better with her having one. Came in really handy when she broke down in heavy traffic on the Washington beltway.

I gave it up after we broke up (she had the plan). I later got one through my employer. REALLY good deal -- huge group purchase so the plan was really reasonable. Something like $6.99 a month for the basic fee, but the minutes were steep, especially the roaming minutes. That's the number that I still have.

I didn't get my first Smartphone until... 2014 or so, I think. It was a Motorola droid. What a piece of crap. When I finally got out of the plan with that one I got my first Samsung Galaxy and haven't looked back.

I was with Verizon all of those years. Their plans were... not good. Expensive and I was limited on data and minutes, but their coverage was really good.

Data was the big problem, as I was commuting a lot. Minutes not a problem as I didn't make that many calls, or get that many, either.

When I started working at AT&T, I of course switched my cell service over to them. Half off the plan that I'm on, with unlimited minutes, data, and text. I pay $47 a month. Can't beat that with a stick.

I'm not as crazy about AT&T's coverage, though. There are areas where it's spotty and when I walk into my house? My signal goes away. Down to zero bars. I walk out my front door and all my bars are back. Fortunately the phone has VOIP calling mode so it links right into my home network and I'm fine.

[Ben]

I recall the first time I saw anyone that I interacted with IRL with one was 1992. I think I got my first one, not because I needed one, but just to be a tech nerd, around 1994. I recall a girl in grad school got one of the Motorola flip "tanks" and I thought it was neat, so went and got the same one.

I have always thought that the size trends - from the first phones to current smart phones - were interesting. I recall a boss at work always wanting the smallest phone and getting a new, smaller one every year. His quest ended when Motorola came out with a flip phone that was like 3"x1.5"x1". He thought it was the greatest thing for about the first few weeks, but the difficulty of holding it and using the buttons finally got to be too much for him.

Now with smart phones it has been "bigger is better" though I notice people are starting to trend away from the big screens. Personally, my S9 is about as big of a phone as I want. It barely fits in the "cell phone pockets" of various pants and rucks and stuff I have.

[K Frame]

"He thought it was the greatest thing for about the first few weeks, but the difficulty of holding it and using the buttons finally got to be too much for him."

There's an episode of Futurama that rips on that trend. Amy Wong has a cell phone that's basically the size of her thumbnail. To use it she has to slip it into a cell phone extender.

[HankB]

I got my first cell phone - a Motorola flip phone - sometime in the early 2000s. This "dumb phone" worked fine for phone calls, but for anything else - and I mean ANYTHING else - it was "user hostile."

I got my first smartphone - a Samsung A11 - in 2021. I upgraded to a Samsung A15 this year. Both of these are probably considered "entry level" smartphones - and priced accordingly - but I can talk, text, take and receive pix, run various apps from weather to shopping, do video calls - so both met my needs. (I'm not a phone gamer.)  Connection to bluetooth for "hands free" operation on my new 4Runner was a snap. IMHO, "Good enough is perfect" when it comes to smartphones. (I don't store bank/cc info on the phone.)

[WLJ]

Remember when I got my first cell phone and I let my wife carry it around while she was out and about since while I was at work I had my work pager.
She would page me from it but If called her back the cell phone would always go straight to voice mail. Why? Because she would always turn it off after paging me because she didn't want the batteries to run down. No I am not making that up

[K Frame]

Remember when I got my first cell phone and I let my wife carry it around while she was out and about since while I was at work since I had my work pager.
She would page me from it but If called her back the cell phone would always go straight to voice mail. Why? Because she would always turn it off after paging me because she didn't want the batteries to run down. No I am not making that up

And then it was always "WHY DIDN'T YOU GET BACK TO ME?"

[MechAg94]

IMO, the cell phones really came into their own with internet access.  I don't think that really came in until the 2000's.  It was a convenience item prior to that.  Internet access and the advent of youtube and other social media apps is what changed them from wireless phones to handheld computers that people went to whenever they weren't actively engaged in some activity. 

I want to say texting was a big part of it, but I am not sure that alone changed things as much. 

[WLJ]

And then it was always "WHY DIDN'T YOU GET BACK TO ME?"

You got it.

There was some other absolutely bat s crazy stuff she would start stuff over like arguing why wasn't I putting the entertainment center over there.
Me: The EC is 5 feet wide that space is only 4 feet.
Her: Why don't you try?
Me: I don't have to try it won't fit.
Her: You just don't want to try because it's my idea
And it went south from there

[Brad Johnson]

There's an episode of Futurama that rips on that trend. Amy Wong has a cell phone that's basically the size of her thumbnail. To use it she has to slip it into a cell phone extender.

I remember an episode of Sprockets where Dieter makes a big show of answering his tiny flip phone. It was about that same size.

Brad

[lee n. field]

Lotta nostalgia for the 90s on the internet these days. Some people seem to remember it as the days before cell phones. In my memories, by the late nineties, at least half of the enlisted guys I served with had them. In 2000, a friend of mine was so annoyed that I didn't have one, he bought me one, and put me on his plan. All his other friends had them, he said.

How do you remember it?

Started in the 80s, and people like realtors had cell phones.  Bag phones, a big brick think you held to your head.

Job I had 97-2000, they gave me a pager.  Some people might have had cell phone, I don't recall.

Work couldn't find em one day in the low 2000s, and got me one of their Nokia suppository-type things.

It was only last year I got myself my own phone, anticipating that I would probably retire sometime soon.  And here we are.

[MechAg94]

I have heard a lot of nostalgia for the 90's from other directions also.  It was in that transition period between the Cold War and the War on Terror so there wasn't as much foreign policy concern as today.  Hollywood was still making some pretty good movies in the 90's.  Compared to what happened in the 2010's, race relations and other cultural issues were somewhat quiet compared to now. 

That funny thing is I saw a meme about Back to the Future.  In the movie they went from 1985 to 1955 and there was nostalgia for the 50's then.  These days, 30 years ago is 1994. 

[Brad Johnson]

You got it.

There was some other absolutely bat *expletive deleted*it crazy stuff she would do like argue why wasn't I putting the entertainment center over there.
Me: The EC is 5 feet wide that space is only 4 feet.
Her: Why don't you try?
Me: I don't have to try it won't fit.
Her: You just don't want to try because it's my idea
And it went south from there

My ex would lock herself in the third bedroom to mope when she got mad about something. Would spend the time writing self-pitying notes and shoving them under the door.

Brad

[WLJ]

Saw an article somewhere that stated flip phones sales are raising as an increasing number of people are trying to disconnect somewhat.

[lee n. field]

Saw an article somewhere that stated flip phones sales are raising as an increasing number of people are trying to disconnect somewhat.

If I didn't need Google Authenticator for some stuff, I could and might.

[WLJ]

I miss not having to charge my Motorola flip for two weeks after I put an extended battery on it I got off Amazon for $12

[Brad Johnson]

I started with Radio Shack in 1988. Their only cell phone offerings at the time were the installed mobile, the battery-pack version of the full mobile, and the Motorola Brick (rebadged to Radio Shack, of course).

https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1988_radioshack_catalog.html

By the time I left in 1992, I think the selection had expanded to five with two much slimmer handhelds in the mix. Prices had dropped precipitously, too. IIRC the handhelds were hovering around $300-ish with activation. Somewhere around 1995 it got to the "$99 with activation" mark for handhelds and much less than that for mobiles. That's when the traditional cell phone market really went nuts.

Brad

[Ben]

IMO, the cell phones really came into their own with internet access. 

Well, and broad internet access in general. I remember with that first Moto, Once you left urban areas, it was really hit or miss, and mostly miss, on getting a cell signal. That all did improve pretty rapidly though.

I recall during I think the mid-2000s, I had one of the gov Nextel secure phones, and it had crappy service in civilization, but I was able to get a signal with it flying at 1000' up to 20-30 miles off the coast, and even on Santa Cruz Island off CA. Pretty sporadic, but I was able to send short texts or even small dbf files. An actual phone call was really hit or miss.

On internet and cell access in general, the US was almost screwed by being the bleeding edge innovator. Just from all the different systems that we pursued and then abandoned. I recall that really hit me when I was in Belize in around 2007. In a little island town with mud roads, I was getting better Internet service than I got at home, since coming in late, they were able to go straight to economical wireless infrastructure.

[Tuco]

And then it was always "WHY DIDN'T YOU GET BACK TO ME?"

My mother, always.
I've quit trying to explain that the voicemails aren't stored locally and she needs cell coverage to hear them.

[MechAg94]

Well, and broad internet access in general. I remember with that first Moto, Once you left urban areas, it was really hit or miss, and mostly miss, on getting a cell signal. That all did improve pretty rapidly though.

I recall during I think the mid-2000s, I had one of the gov Nextel secure phones, and it had crappy service in civilization, but I was able to get a signal with it flying at 1000' up to 20-30 miles off the coast, and even on Santa Cruz Island off CA. Pretty sporadic, but I was able to send short texts or even small dbf files. An actual phone call was really hit or miss.

On internet and cell access in general, the US was almost screwed by being the bleeding edge innovator. Just from all the different systems that we pursued and then abandoned. I recall that really hit me when I was in Belize in around 2007. In a little island town with mud roads, I was getting better Internet service than I got at home, since coming in late, they were able to go straight to economical wireless infrastructure.

I think full cell coverage has only been a thing for about 10 years.  I recall in the late 2000's you could get good cell coverage on I-10, but if you pulled off I-10, the cell coverage dropped out within a mile or two. 
Now days, I can stream youtube videos on a cross country trip and hardly ever hit a dead zone. 

[WLJ]

My mother, always.
I've quit trying to explain that the voicemails aren't stored locally and she needs cell coverage to hear them.

My mother could never make the connection between the name being displayed and who's calling