what year did you buy your first cellphone

and what carrier was it, what kind of phone?

me, 1996, primeco, a big ol' qualcomm model with a retractable antenna

in 1999 if I remember it correctly. Carrier was Swisscom. Was one of the first tri-band, WAP-enabled cell phones; browsing the internet with it was useless, though.

I was still in the Army, and my wife commuted to the other end of town. We had to hook up at the train station for the ride home, and cell phones were miraculous.

I understood why the Who sang of a magic bus.

but I had to carry an extra battery for the phone to last all day.

A Sprint Sanyo. I no longer have the phone or the service. It looks like one of these.

I only got a cel phone when I was in a situation where I actually needed it.

:hide:

I was getting ready to go to about 2 dozen concerts that summer from MA to DC and my mom told me I could go under one condition, that is if I got a cellphone.

It was hard at the time to find a plan that would cover the whole northeast.

clunky and I can't even remember what the company was but the next 4 (letter in the mail just like the bank mergers) were all usurped by Verizon.

also - until the last '80's cellular phones had a battery that was carried in a suitcase. In '91 (as I recall) there was a leap in technology that allowed cell phones to become less cumbersome - You probably had one of these big, old monsters:


I bought my first cell phone in late '95 or early '96 - The cost to operate the thing was outrageous and I was paranoid of using it too much due to the crazy bills I saw some of my friends getting.

I was working night shift so during the days I would turn my landline phones off so I wouldn't be disturbed while I slept.

My mother was in a tizzy trying to get thru to me (like Wilmington, DE was ever a threat).

So I got a cell phone and it was with Cingular. I was also panicked that I wouldn't pass the credit check (not sure why, geez I only bought a house a few years later) so I did one of those online deals I got an email from. Sure enough 2 days later the cell phone arrived.

Heavy, very poor range and no battery life. But better than having to pull over and find a pay phone.

Early 90s.

:patriot:

http://www.edge-online.com/files/imagecache/article_content_360x270/nextgen/conan+in+the+year+2000.jpg






Sorry, I just had to do that! :P

obviously I had to do it, too ;) :thumbsup:

The reason I'm not sure is that it's still that same phone (Kyocera KE433) and carrier (Virgin Mobile.)

After going to New Zealand, I was impressed with the Vodaphone, only to get back here and when I click on their "USA" option, to get redirected to Verizon. I want Vodaphone, not Verizon. Hurry up and buy them out Vodaphone! :D

I still have it. It's some sort of Verizon basic model.

Apropos of nothing... did the paçoca get there?

It was after Bush was selected in 2000, but before 9/11. Somewhere in between there.

The year I went off to college and it was one of those Nokia rectangular bricks, no frills and a monochrome display.

This was still in the day when really nobody had cellphones in high school let alone middle school. My how times have changed

"Car" phone...the kind that mounted in the vehicle with an external antenna and 3 full watts of power. It was through Alltel and the service came with 30 free minutes per month for 19.99.

LG VX 8100
Verizon

It was pretty no thrills.

Eight years later I still prefer to use my cellphone for the sole purpose of calling people. Maybe I'm just an old wet blanket like that.

I got the LG Chocolate 2 for Verizon. I'm still on Verizon, but I use a BlackBerry Storm instead.

and a gift from my mom.

that thing got a signal everywhere, it was amazing. i got my truck stuck in cinder 20 miles east of Mono Lake and well off the highway, but i could still make a call to AAA. i also was able to call a friend from the UT/AZ border in a spot *miles* from the highway in a canyon (though i had to stand on my truck).

it didn't look like much but those analog signals, they rocked.

Nokia TracFone, baby!

I still have a TracFone today, although it's a bit nicer than the first one I bought. I mostly use it to text lil' blogslut.

You could get blazing 33.6mhz speed using your cellphone, as long as your phone could keep the connection. I actually used it once or twice for actual work.

It was a Motorola thingy - can't remember the model now... but back then Orange had their network set up so you could call toll free numbers without incurring any airtime usage. An enterprising company who sold phone cards advertised this fact so Orange started blocking their numbers. The phone card company fought back by having "secret" numbers that if you called them and asked they'd give you the backdoor toll free number... which worked until Orange caught on and blocked that number too. Phone was one of the first pre-paid phones and at that time Orange was one of the new networks on the block... and they deemed our little village to be an important coverage area so we got good reception there - unlike Vodafone or then Cellnet (now O2) who usually dropped out.

Before that, cell phone use was with my dad's phone. He got one in the middle of the 1980's - the carrier was under the name of Racal Vodafone ... it was more of a transportable phone than a mobile since it was installed in the car and whilst it did have a hands-free kit, if Dad wanted to use it out of the card he'd need to take out the phone equipment installed in the back of the car and the handset from the front, put the two together and then lug it around.

After I almost was stranded in a snowstorm driving home from work. No way to call for help.

I turn it on maybe once a week.

it was a Nokia, through Cell One.