Today is a big day in wireless history as it marks 50 years since the first cellular phone call was made in New York City by Marty Cooper, an early leader in radio technology who worked for Motorola. Cooper, who is widely considered the “father of the cell phone,” made that first cellular call on April 3, 1973, on Sixth Avenue near the Midtown Hilton Hotel in New York City. Cooper called his rival Joel Engel, head of AT&T’s Bell Labs, to tell him that his team at Motorola had created a functional portable phone. Cooper recounts this story in his book, “Cutting the Cord.”
In a recent interview with Mobile World Live, Cooper said the first prototype of the cellular phone that he used that day weighed about 2.5 pounds and had a battery life of 25 minutes.
Although that first call occurred in 1973, it took another 10 years for commercial cellular service to become a reality. In 1983, Motorola started selling the first cell phones for a price-tag of between $3,500 and $4,000. Few people could afford those early devices that today are considered vital to every consumer.
In fact, a recent survey of more than 1,000 respondents that was commissioned by cloud company Sinch revealed that 23% of those surveyed said they couldn’t last an hour without their cell phone and nearly 72% said they couldn’t imagine going more than a weekend without their mobile phone.
Celebrating that first call
In honor of the 50th anniversary of that first cellular call, Cooper, who is 94 years old, re-enacted that call in New York City this morning along with wife, Arlene Harris, who is also a wireless industry veteran, credited with founding GreatCall, a wireless service targeted to seniors.
Originally, a reception was planned to mark today’s 50th year anniversary at the Midtown Hilton Hotel to recognize Cooper and all the many inventors and visionaries involved in the early days of the wireless industry.
Called “Celebrate the Call” the event included the unveiling of a historic sidewalk marker near where that first call was made. However, organizers of the Celebrate the Call had to postpone the event due to problems getting that historic marker approved by the City of New York Transportation Department.
Nevertheless, organizers are confident that the event will still occur and are working on a new date for the celebration. Supporters of the event include organizations such as the GSMA, the Wireless History Foundation, Radio Club of America and the Tesla Science Center.