First Mobile Phone Call Was Placed 40 Years Ago Today

Aleteia - published on 04/03/13

The prototype was 2.5 pounds and had only enough power for a 20 min call

Forty years ago today, Marty Cooper made the first mobile phone call in history. The prototype was eventually released as a commercial product to the public as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. It weighed 2.5 pounds, cost $3,995, and only had enough battery life for 20 minutes of talk time on a single charge. Mashable has the story:

On April 3, 1973 — exactly 40 years from today — Motorola employee Marty Cooper made the first mobile phone call.

Marty used a Motorola DynaTAC to call Bell Labs (then a division of AT&T), reportedly saying "I'm ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end."

The device that Marty used to place the call was a prototype which would later become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x.

Mashable also has a great graphic showing the history of cell phones.

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