Tech History Made on April 3, 1973

On this day 35 years ago the first cellular phone call was made. In those day if you wanted a mobile phone you would of needed a radiophone in your car. The radiophone was cumbersome and its supporting equipment weighed 30 pounds. Martin Cooper of Motorala first call with the cellular phone was to Bell labs research chief Joel Engel. Bell labs had the idea of cell phones in the late 40's and competed through the 60's and 70's with Motorola to make the idea real.
The first cellphone, DynaTAC (for DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage), was 2 1/2 pounds, 9 inches long and contained 30 circuit boards. After a 10 hour charge you could have 35 minutes of talk time. By 1983 Motorola developed a marketable cell phone. The 1 pound DynaTac set you back a cool $3500. By 1990 there were 1 million American cell phone subscribers. Today you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have a cell. Many people have abandoned land lines all together. Which is easy to see considering the lightest phone is only 1.41 ounces and every carrier has a free phone with 2 year contract.