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Have I Ever Told You About My First Cell Phone?
By Larry Hendrick | September 13, 2006
I have a tendency to laugh, to myself, every time I use my small Motorola flip phone. Cellular telephones are a staple in the business world now, rather than the luxury they once were. Not that long ago, they were very much a luxury item, expensive … and big!
In the mid 90s (that’s ~1995), a new product emerged competing with radio telephones, the standard for big corporations. This new product was big and bulky and weighed a ton, but it allowed something really cool. While driving down the highway, you could have a conversation with some distant customer or fellow worker. WOW! Of course, we talked fast and with abbreviated acronyms, because the standard plan had ninety minutes each month. And the overage was terrible, so you didn’t want to go there.
I was a true Road Warrior then, driving about 4000 miles every month. The company I worked for provided a long distance calling card, which was standard issue for the day. Several times each day, I would pull into a quick mart and grab the pay phone and call the office to check on messages from customers and co-workers alike then use the calling card to call the customers that needed attention right then. This process (standing at the pay phone) could take as much at an hour, two or three times each day.
Then de-regulation, and the pay phones no longer belonged to the main telephone company, but whoever would pay the most money to the store owners from the receipts. This brought about the odd situation of having to pay a quarter every time you picked up the receiver, even when using a company calling card. This quickly became an expensive proposition, running into several dollars each time I stopped.
At first, I tried to cut back on the number of calls to the office, but customer calls added up to the same each day, so that only saved a quarter or fifty cents. Not a lot in the scope of things.
I had heard of this new gadget, the cell phone, but had never used one. I thought it at least worth a look.
The one I bought was called a Motorola Bag Phone and worked by plugging it into the cigarette lighter for power. There was an optional battery, but I couldn’t afford that accessory.
What a fantastic device it turned out to be. I could quickly call the office and make brief calls to customers. And the ninety minutes with the $34/month plan fit the budget of what I was averaging on quarters at quick marts. Of course, the coverage area was spotty, normally only working along major highways, but it was definitely more convenient.
The features we take for granted now, didn’t exist then. Long Distance cost about a dollar per minute and every incoming and outgoing call cost. No free nights or weekends, in fact most of us were afraid to leave it on nights and weekends, because someone might call us.
Now I carry a tiny Motorola with more minutes than I use, and get free nights and weekends, as well as free calls to everyone on the same carrier service. And the prices have dropped considerable.
Yes, I have to laugh every time I pick up my little self-powered cell phone to make a call, thinking about a few years ago.
What a difference a decade makes.
Topics: Life |