Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call 40 years ago today. Matt Warman marks a remarkable ruby anniversary
Forty years ago today, on April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made a
call in downtown Manhattan on a Motorola DynaTAC. The device widely credited
with being used for the first mobile conversation was nine inches tall, used 30
circuit boards and took 10 hours to recharge. At no point are the words “I’m on
the train” likely to have been uttered.
Today, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the worldwide
telecoms industry has annual revenues of £800 billion and is driven by what it
calls “an array of technologies, resulting in the average mobile being used to
take photos, play music and games, send emails, download maps, watch video
clips, all as well as talking and texting”.
