How the First Cell Phone Was Made

[@owencooktech]

Hey dudes! Thanks for watching. As always, if any mistakes are found, I’ll put them her in the show notes.

[@the_kombinator]

I remember my first phone in the 90s - it was a Mitsubishi and it was the size and shape of a TV remote.Couldn't text. Analog, $25 an hour. If you went over 1 minute by a second, you're charged for the next minute. My girlfriend in high school loved pushing me past that minute when she was mad. Which was a lot of the time.

[@owencooktech]

oh wow. yeah, phones were crazy expensive back then.

[@the_kombinator]

@@owencooktech Oh I got the phone itself for $100 (a good amount for 15 year old me in the mid 90s) but yeah 90% of the minutes went to my gf. My friends called me and the conversation was always "on my way", " be there in 5" , "Meet me X" , and the occasional "Bring a bat".

[@thecianinator]

Pagers weren't really for messaging, they were for phone numbers. The way they worked was you'd call the pager's number, a voice would tell you to enter your number, and after you did that, you'd hang up, and then the pager you called would start beeping. Whoever had the pager would then pick it up, press a button to make the beeping stop, and look at the little screen, where they would see the phone number you entered. Then they would go find a phone and call the number from their pager. Basically a pager was just a way to get somebody to call you if you couldn't call them.

[@owencooktech]

@@thecianinator yes. That is true. You could also send codes. This gave birth to texting. Some codes like "lol" came from a pager.

[@James_Knott]

I knew someone who used her cell phone as a pager. When someone called, instead of answering, she'd get the number from the call display and then go find a payphone to call back. This was back in the days when you paid by the minute for cell calls.

[@thecianinator]

@@James_Knott honestly, galaxy brain move

[@mikethespike7579]

Of course pagers were used for messaging. They were used pretty much the same way people today send SMS messages. My wife often sent me pager messages such as "at the gym, will be back home by 5", or "dont forget to pick up Johny".

[@thecianinator]

@@mikethespike7579 I'm aware of that functionality but I never saw it myself. Only use I ever saw IRL was phone number sending. So how did the messaging work? When I was a kid and I'd page my dad, I called the number the voice told me to enter a phone number, and I did. I think he even showed me that in real time when he first got it. What was the actual process for typing out and sending a message?

[@Nick-qy3hu]

I had a Microtac. I could keep it on a pouch on my hip, the thing was just so TINY... 🤣

[@owencooktech]

@@Nick-qy3hu yeah dude. Especially for the time. Looking back now it definitely had some girth to it.

[@olafelsberry420]

My grandma had a carphone and my grandpa had a brick Motorola.

[@owencooktech]

@@olafelsberry420 that's neat dude!

[@James_Knott]

Many years ago, my wife gave her father an emergency bag phone. This phone came in a bag, with a magnetic mount antenna and plugged into the cigarette lighter, intended to be used in emergencies. It was, of course, 1G analog.

[@Walkercolt1]

Sorry, the FIRST cellular phone was the Motorola X-3P. BEFORE THAT, Motorola made an IDENTICAL Bell Systems compatible with the Bell "Bag Phone" with a 3 foot long "floppy" antenna (32 Mhz band between TV channels 3 and 4). Watch the first "Major League" movie and you'll see Corbin Bernsen on one, talking to his broker, while the DC-3 is being "repaired".

[@owencooktech]

Neither of the phones you mentioned showed up in my research or in any Google searches I just did. "Major League" came out in 1989. 16 years after the DynaTAC was invented.

[@UnanimousDelivers]

2024 "Nowadays it seems like cell phones are everywhere." 2016 "The internet is really taking off" 2009 "Wanna visit the twin towers? Well, you're probably out of luck." 1998 "Color TVs are starting to take over black & white"

[@Hakan89]

I genuinely love how this guy presents a story.

[@owencooktech]

Thanks dude!

[@mikethespike7579]

The first cell phone I saw was around 1988. A sales rep visiting us in the office had it, but it looked no way like the phone shown here. It was designed like a box that you carried around on a handle. It had a normal looking handset connected to the box by cable and was kept in a compartment in the box when not in use. A friend of mine in Norway had a similar model which he used right up to the end of the 1990s. After that it became obsolete when the provider switched to digital.

[@owencooktech]

Yeah, that's the RadioShack mobile phone. I used ads for it in this video. You could install it in your car or bring it with you. it retailed for $799 I believe. The ads were super fun and 90s, but I don't consider it a "mobile" phone due to how heavy it was.

[@mikethespike7579]

@@owencooktech Yep, they were heavy and usually left in the car. I mean, if you were visiting a company or friends, there was nearly always a phone installed there anyway. My Norwegian friend had one so early only because he lives in the sticks where there are no telephone lines. It was a revolution for him to suddenly be able to telephone people from his wood hut in the forest up a mountain where the moose and deer all live.

[@soorajsoorajs3385]

Nokia mobira city man 😂😂😂😂.

[@davidgold5961]

Yes, that was called a “bag phone”. It was basically a mobile 3 Watt cellular telephone in a black Naugahyde bag with a battery pack inside the bag. There were many instances when I converted someone’s bag phone into an installed telephone in their car. You could also remove the telephone equipment from a car, and by adding a NiCad battery pack you could turn it into a bag phone if you had the bag, which were available separately. The telephone you were describing was probably a Nokia, which was not in a bag, it was in a hard case with an included battery pack. There were three or four versions of these from different manufacturers. Many men on construction sites would use their bag phone on the hood of their truck as a temporary office.

[@danielosawaru9045]

5:26 lol, "unlike the vision pro everybody wanted it."😂 Your uncle probably had some huge pockets.

[@owencooktech]

@@danielosawaru9045 yeah he's got dedication that's for sure.

[@davidhenry2927]

The mobile phone was invented in America but was actually developed and built at Motorola's Israel R&D center. It is common to move work far offshore to keep it secret from competitors.

[@owencooktech]

Oh really? I didn’t find anything about that in my research.

[@TDuff306]

I remember my dad having one of those brick phones and my grandpa had a bag phone. That he would take from his truck and put in the tractor when he was in the field.

[@frizzykid100]

Really love the video, though at around 7:00 when you talk about pagers it almost sounds like you're saying that they just came about as a competitor, when, at least for some parts of the world, pagers were there wayyy before even the car phones, like late 70s early 80s they started to popularize, and remained more popular than traditional cellphones until sms became common place.

[@ejamesyyj]

Yes this jumped out at me too. Pagers were huge and were pushed by the telecom companies even as cell phones came out because there were a lot of concerns about bandwidth and the ability of the network to take on the larger use. I also chuckled when he said that no one wanted to carry around change just to make a phone call. Ummm...ATMs were not a thing yet, we all carried cash. In fact, on pay day you took your check to the bank and cashed it and had to plan for the weekend because you couldn't take money out again until the bank reopened. Many weekends I would end up with no more cash to spend. The only kind of money you had was change and paper money in your pockets, this wasn't just for calls it was for everything you did.

[@James_Knott]

I had a pager at 2 companies I worked for. Never had anyone try to reach me on it though.

[@reb-ii]

Hey bro, as a Nerd the media has tried to teach me that dudes like you are my enemy, but it is clear that you give a shit and know your stuff, so thank you for giving my drunk ass a cool video to watch and helping me on the way to realising that people are just people, y'all are doing awesome

[@owencooktech]

@@reb-iihell yeah dude. Nerd is not a word we use here. We're all humans, let's just get along.

[@augustus2043]

Solid quality. Subbed

[@owencooktech]

@@augustus2043 thanks my dude

[@somsubhromukherjee399]

Hey man! That was really informative. You deserve more views- subbed!

[@owencooktech]

@@somsubhromukherjee399 thanks my dude!

[@stevejohnson1321]

The cells probably work well in your metropolitan locale. Rural regions like mine, coverage can be poor. Probably this won't get fixed in my lifetime.

[@owencooktech]

@@stevejohnson1321 yeah I live in the outskirts of a biggish city. Service is spotty. That'll always be the case. It's magical invisible communication waves being beamed down from tall towers. I'm thankful for what I can get.

[@wadeepperson6906]

I remember the star tac it was awesome

[@owencooktech]

@@wadeepperson6906 yeah it looks sweet. Super dope moment in history.

[@James_Knott]

Back in the 90s, I bought a fake phone as a gag. I left it on my desk at IBM and someone stole it! 😢

[@wadeepperson6906]

@@James_Knott oh man that's horrible

[@wadeepperson6906]

@@owencooktech I wish I had that VW harlequin colored one though. 🤣

[@johanslabbert2869]

5:41 , is that Borat? 👀

[@owencooktech]

@@johanslabbert2869 yeah I think so

[@Adam-McG]

There are so many errors in this video, you should just go ahead and delete it. You’re showing long lines towers when talking about cell towers. You said that carphones used the car radio antenna (when it didn’t.)

[@aceede7444]

Great video as always, keep it up bro :)

[@owencooktech]

@@aceede7444 thanks dude! You're the best. Stay excellent.

[@McWinnerMusic]

Why Motorola is still standing, maybe it would be massive

[@T8ersalad]

You really opened the video with “Hey Dude”……😂

[@owencooktech]

@@T8ersalad that's just how we do it here. Party on dude.

[@James_Knott]

That and the backwards cap cost him credibility.

[@AteebHussein]

How the hell do you not have a million subscribers!

[@owencooktech]

@@AteebHussein lol thanks dude! You’re the best.

[@TCperry]

Really well put together video. That original phone looks so unwieldy. Jesus loves you!

[@owencooktech]

@@TCperry thanks my dude! It's definitely huge.

[@s.m.mediaproductions5304]

Sum 41!! I love the band. Sad they're breaking up. I got to see them a few times live at least.

[@owencooktech]

@@s.m.mediaproductions5304 yeah. Their music is great. It's cool you got to see them. Their last album is the greatest.

[@gamesgonenuts]

this was very interesting hit the like

[@owencooktech]

@@gamesgonenuts thanks my dude!

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Not the first handheld mobile though.

[@owencooktech]

@@jeffkardosjr.3825 what was then?

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

​​@@owencooktech An example of earlier mobile phones. Leonid Kupriyanovich was experimenting with handheld phones, at least some of which had CDMA, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

[@owencooktech]

@@jeffkardosjr.3825 cmda was radio, not cellular. Also the "experimentation" with such technology does not make it the first. It goes without saying that the first mobile phone should be produced at some sort of volume and be commercially available. Radio and wireless communication proceeds the DynaTAC yes, but it is the first mobile phone. Full stop.

[@James_Knott]

@@owencooktech Actually, mobile phones go back to 1947 in St. Louis Missouri. As mentioned in the video, they were big, heavy and were in the trunk. The network also had limited capacity and required an operator.

[@owencooktech]

@@James_Knott that's a car phone. It was in 1946 and like I said in my video it wasn't really mobile.

[@Derpy1969]

Did you just call me dude?

[@owencooktech]

@@Derpy1969 heck yeah dude. It's not about gender. We're all dudes here and I'm just trying to have a good time. Party on.