Spin-Off: When Did YOU First Get a Cell Phone And...

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We had one of those car phones that had a big bag with it. And had some of the very first cell phones - my husband just had to have them.

We used a pager for years too before smart phones were out - that's how I notified my husband I was in labor with our first kid. LOL

Yeah - I'm old.

And we still have a land line. I want to get rid of it but my husband uses it for business so we can't. It is through our internet company - when the internet is out so is the land line.

 

[bcla]

Probably late 90s. I just got laid off and my employer paid for a job search coach. One of the things the coach specified was that we should all have a cell phone just in case we were going to be late. I got a Nokia 5100 Series. Not a whole lot of frills, but it had a few games. I got a discount with a contract, but I had to pay the sales tax on the full retail $600. I think the plan was maybe 120 minutes a month for $35/month, and the coverage area before roaming kicked in was maybe 9 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those were the days when a phone was basically just a phone.

I'd certainly seen a few over the years. Our travel coordinator for our Disneyland Grad Nite trip in the late 80s had a shoulder-carry Panasonic phone. Where I worked a college job in the early 90s, the boss was showing us his Audiovox phone, which was pretty small for the time. It has a new-fangled NiMH battery.

 

[xjillianpaige]

I remember my dad having a car phone when I was a kid. I think it used the cigarette lighter as its source of energy, but I could be wrong.

I'm not sure when my parents got a cell phone - I think it was early 2000s. I didn't get one until 2004 because that was when I started high school, though some of my friends got them in middle school (2002-2003). My little brother got his when I got mine and he was in 6th grade, which I think was too young.

 

[jacki123]

Our first cellphone was in the early 90's. We had just moved to Colorado Springs and my inlaws came to visit from Chicago, they felt we were out in the wild and insisted on buying us one. lol. We had to carry an extra battery around because the battery never lasted long. Plus that phone was crazy heavy.

 

[kmb584]

I got my first one in 2000 as a 16th birthday present. It was a blue Nokia, had a green screen, and weighed about 3 lbs. I remember using nail polish to change the color of the phone on a monthly basis.

 

[Kellykins1218]

I got 2 prepaid Tracfones on Thanksgiving Day in 2000. They were an early bird deal at Super K & they were free if you bought a certain amount of minutes. My mom was really sick so I got one for me & one for my dad so she could always get a hold of us if she needed us. At the time, I only knew one other person that had a cell phone.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I got my first phone in the early 2000's. And I gave all the cell phones up in 2008 and use a landline. I don't even miss having one.

 

[prprincess]

I believe I got my first cellphone in 1997. I'd moved out to CA on my own and my boyfriend at the time gifted me the line and the phone to keep in touch with my family back east. We'd still had a landline, though, and I still have one now. I don't know. I don't seem to talk on the phone as much as I used to, but I like having it at home. Especially with two kids.

 

[SC Minnie]

1994 I was pregnant with DD and my Dad got us all bag phones for the car. We had those for 4 or 5 years before getting our first real cell phone.

 

[bjscheel]

In 1994 or 1995 DH (was my boyfriend at the time) got me one because I was driving 2 hours to college about every other weekend. I kept it in the car for emergencies. I have no idea who it was with, but at some point probably still in the 90's we started using Tracfone. DH got a phone or two provided by an employer, then his sister put him on her Verizon plan for $10/month. He's on his own Verizon account now and uses it constantly for business. I'm still on Tracfone, and just got a smartphone a year and a half ago, an iPhone 4S. I plan to get on Verizon by spring, so that I'll have service where DD's track meets are.

We still have a landline. I like using that number for things you have to provide a number for, and I just like having one. It can be a real pain in the butt these days when people are not listed in the phone book anymore and you don't know how to contact them. And since I am on Tracfone, DH will call the home phone so as not to use my minutes. I also like to support our tiny local independent phone company (it's probably also required for our DSL). It's so small our account number on our landline phone bill is "155". I figure they can't afford to lose too many customers!

 

[Erzengel]

I went to school in Newark and felt it was important to have a cell phone. I think I was the first person I knew who had it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I had the Motorola Flip in the late 90's

I no longer have a landline, haven't had one for several years now. I was slow to start texting...until the iPhone.

I know I have had several different phones. When it comes to iPhone I know I have had several in the evolution of them. I started with the original, skipped to ahead to 4, 4s,5, 6 plus, and 6s.

 

[hereyago]

My first was 93/94 bag phone. Whew, I thought I was the stuff,lol. Carrying it around at the mall.

Then came the flip phone. I honestly can't remember how many phones I have had since then.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I think it was early nineties for us, the old bag phone, but what I remember most about it was we had to change the network setting when traveling. Like from "A" to "AB" to "BA" the most difficult thing was knowing where you were and which network to switch over to. i also remember the free nights and weekends that started at 9:00 then one of the mains bumped it up to 7:00 and we where like WooHoo!