When did you first have a mobile phone?

[GusB]

I had a Motorola c520 on Orange PAYG, around 1999. Everyone else I knew had Nokias and when I was offered a second-hand 3210 I jumped at the chance. I upgraded to a new 3310 then moved onto Sony Ericsson. I've still got the 3310 and my K800i somewhere, and they both still work. The latter holds charge for about a week!

In those days, cross network calls were quite expensive, so I had to choose my network carefully.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

In those days, cross network calls were quite expensive, so I had to choose my network carefully.

Yes, I remember now but had forgotten. My company issued ones was always to landlines so it did not matter too much.

 

[PeterC]

Late 1999, just after almost missing the "come now" message from the hospital that my dad was in.

 

[Bletchleyite]

1998 when Vodafone did the "£150 or so for a phone and 12 months line rental included" - was one of the early Motorola digital ones with a flip mouthpiece and a pull out aerial. It probably did SMS but nobody knew what that was back then.

My Mum had an analogue one a few years before that after a car accident and I had on occasions borrowed it to ask for a pickup at Burscough on the way back from Manchester. I remember her phoning me on that on a peak time Southport train and literally everyone turned around and stared at me.

 

[Big Tim]

1999, PAYG with BT Cellnet - their standard issue black phone (with small aerial), green screen. It was my second year of Uni, and had finally got sick of queuing to use payphones in Dundee city centre to make calls. Not long after I bought a string of overpriced PAYG handsets after moving to Vodafone. Remember breaking at least three of those "clamshell" / "flip-phone" things in the early 00's, before settling on the trusty Nokia 3210 for near enough a decade until I finally faced up to the fact I needed a smartphone.

 

[Jamesrob637]

2001 - for sixth form - a Siemens C25! Then a 3410, then a couple of Sony Ericssons, then a BlackBerry, and since the end of 2011 various Samsung Galaxy. Have had a Motorola briefly too.

 

[Journeyman]

Nokia 3310 in about 2001, it was a work phone but I was allowed personal use within reason. When I changed jobs a year or two later and had to hand it back, I took out a contract with T-Mobile and got a Nokia 8310. Switched to Three a while back, but still have the same number.

 

[Tetchytyke]

So I'm fairly sure that my first phone was a Motorola 3788 in either late 1999 or maybe early 2000. My parents bought it as I was starting to range further away from home at the time so they thought it would be a wise investment.

Same here. I was in 6th form and starting to go out. I didn't see the point but my mum insisted. I still have it somewhere

First smartphone

I'm not sure how much it counts as a Smartphone as we now know them, but I had a Motorola Razr v3 black flip-phone and I was so excited as it had WAP and a camera. Got that in 2005 when I got my first proper job.

 

[Darandio]

1998 when Vodafone did the "£150 or so for a phone and 12 months line rental included" - was one of the early Motorola digital ones with a flip mouthpiece and a pull out aerial. It probably did SMS but nobody knew what that was back then.

It wasn't widely known but I certainly used it on my first phone in 1998, exchanged messages back and forth with a few people who were aware what it was.

 

[Journeyman]

It wasn't widely known but I certainly used it on my first phone in 1998, exchanged messages back and forth with a few people who were aware what it was.

It's quite funny that SMS was developed as an engineering function and was never considered to have much commercial value when first rolled out. It was probably the killer feature that led most people to get mobiles in the first place.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's quite funny that SMS was developed as an engineering function and was never considered to have much commercial value when first rolled out. It was probably the killer feature that led most people to get mobiles in the first place.

Indeed the majority use of "phones" is text messaging of various kinds now, not actually talking to people!

 

[Journeyman]

Indeed the majority use of "phones" is text messaging of various kinds now, not actually talking to people!

Yeah. I hate talking on the phone, so I've always been a heavy texter. Recently, of course, it's moved away from SMS to various app-based platforms, but I've always used text more than speech on my mobiles.

 

[talltim]

I bought some sort of Motorola Microtac from a friend in about 1995. It had a credit card sized sim so it must have been post analogue.
I never really used it and when I started work in 2000 I got a Nokia 3210. Everyone else at work had Nokia 5110s which my phone immediately made look old fashioned with their aerials. My phone had predictive text too, none of this pressing the buttons multiple time for me!
That first job was great. I could claim back the line rental and the cost of work calls on expenses. I was on Orange and nearly everyone at work was on Voda meaning that I was claiming about £60 a month. All my friends and my GF were on Orange so my personal calls came out of my free minutes meaning my phone was costing me a few pounds a month. One month I went Dubai and Frankfurt for work, my bill was over £150, but I put in an expense claim saying it was the high because of ringing people back in the Uk and it wouldn’t have been if I’d been at home. To my surprise it went through unquestioned.

 

[thenorthern]

2000 for me I was on BT Cellnet. What was odd though was I found it outside a pub on a Sunday morning while walking to church with my father along with a baseball cap, a packet of cigarettes and a can Stella. We took it to the police station where it used to be they would put in in a police locker for 28 days and if no one claimed it then you could have it. No one claimed it.

I was 7 at the time and I was the first kid in my town to have one which wasn't much use as there was no one to call.

 

[dgl]

I'm not sure how much it counts as a Smartphone as we now know them, but I had a Motorola Razr v3 black flip-phone and I was so excited as it had WAP and a camera. Got that in 2005 when I got my first proper job.

No camera (some models from other manufacturers did) but had downloadable apps/games, GPRS internet access (it had been used for the national rail mobile site) a touch screen, music and video playback (anything supported by WMP iirc), Bluetooth, optional internal GPS, plus all you regular contacts, calendar Etc. stuff. I also believe the SD card slot supported addon cards (SDIO) and so could have Wi-Fi added.
So all in all I would say it isn't much different to a modern smartphone.

 

[Tetchytyke]

So all in all I would say it isn't much different to a modern smartphone.

The Razr v3 Black I had back in 2005 did have a camera but wasn't a touchscreen. A shame Motorola and Nokia both fell asleep at the wheel as the plastic crap churned out by Samsung and Huawei doesn't have the same charm.

 

[theblackwatch]

1998 I think. I had only popped into Dixons (remember them?) To get some rolls of paper for my fax machine (who else had one!) and came out with a brick

 

[telstarbox]

The Razr v3 Black I had back in 2005 did have a camera but wasn't a touchscreen. A shame Motorola and Nokia both fell asleep at the wheel as the plastic crap churned out by Samsung and Huawei doesn't have the same charm.

Motorola have done some good Android phones recently.

 

[4141]

1994. A housebrick!

 

[JohnMcL7]

I think it was 1998 I bought one of the early BT Cellnet pay as you go phones which was a Philips Diga with a credit card sized sim and a single line text display which was a nightmare for texting on. I changed to the Philips Savvy when they released it and then took out a contract and went for the Nokia 3210 which doesn't get much fanfare compared to the 3310 even though the 3210 is responsible for bringing in most of the features, at the time a four line text display, decent interface, internal aerial, games etc. were such a big step up from the cheap PAYG handsets.

 

[Bald Rick]

30 January 1995. Orbitel 902. Very early GSM phone, which is why I bought it rather than analogue.
Took 12 hours to charge and had a 12h standby time, or a one hour talk time. Two curiosities:

1) it could receive texts, but not send them.
2) the deal I was on was ‘cell’ specific. I nominated a cell, and calls that I made from that cell were cheaper than calls made from other cells. The phone screen displayed what cell I was in at all times (eg in Birmingham, the cells were displayed as ‘B-XX’ with XX being one or two identifying letters). I took it on a trip to Australia, and was delighted to see that the cells were given more identifiable name services - I particularly remember it saying ‘Richmond’ whilst at the MCG.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Siemens C35 on BT Cellnet PAYG in around 2000.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Siemens C35 on BT Cellnet PAYG in around 2000.

I had a succession of Siemens phones; like their EMUs they had very good, solid build quality and good design.

 

[Camberman]

I had a BT System 4 car phone from about 1982/3 which was supplied by my employer.

System 4 was the first UK service to allow the user to set up a call themselves without the aid of an operator. It was also the first system where duplex speech was the norm on all handsets.

The system comprised a handset with a briefcase sized transmitter/receiver in the car boot, connected to a long whip aerial which sometimes rubbed on low multi-storey car park ceilings!

 

[EssexGonzo]

About 1989 - a hard wired car phone in my company Ford Sierra. Oh yeah, I was going places. A Motorola I think but I can't be sure.

First hand held was was probably a few years later - a rather nice and quite small for the time Ericsson.

 

[SteveP29]

About 1998/99
My plan gave me 30 texts and 100 minutes per month for something like £26 (a complete rip off these days) as I get unlimited minutes and texts and £24GB data for £32 per month

Here's the little beauty that was my first (stock photo, not my actual phone)

 

[najaB]

My plan gave me 30 texts and 100 minutes per month for something like £26 (a complete rip off these days) as I get unlimited minutes and texts and £24GB data for £32 per month

That's not even a particularly good deal. There are cracking deals available if you go SIM-only. For example, I'm on PAYG at the moment with EE getting 2000 minutes, unlimited texts and 13GB of data for £15 every 30 days.

 

[Crossover]

I got my first phone in 2005 - a Nokia 3120. Early colour screen phone, which was nice in a sea of monochrome - all in all a pretty nice handset!

Following that I moved onto Sony Ericsson - a k750i and then a k770. I still possess all 3, though the battery expanded on the Nokia and popped the back so I had to discard that bit of it.

 

[GusB]

I got my first phone in 2005 - a Nokia 3120. Early colour screen phone, which was nice in a sea of monochrome - all in all a pretty nice handset!

Following that I moved onto Sony Ericsson - a k750i and then a k770. I still possess all 3, though the battery expanded on the Nokia and popped the back so I had to discard that bit of it.

I was working for Vodafone customer services when the K750i came out, and it had one of the best phone cameras going at the time. It, together with the Nokia 6230/6230i were the two most popular phones.

 

[Cowley]

1997 for me. No idea what kind of phone it was, but the first call I made was to my mother from Winchester High Street, and I remember that she was quite disappointed that I’d managed to get a mobile phone before she had...