The First Cell Phone in the World
April 3, 1973, it was a day of historic significance. At that day, a 30-ounce brick was created. It was regarded as the world's first cell phone. Martin Coopper, an American former Motorola vice president and division manager, standing on Sixth Avenue in New York City near the New York Hilton hotel, Cooper made a phone call from a prototype Dyna-Tac handheld cellular phone before going to a press conference upstairs in the hotel on April 3, 1973, . The phone connected Cooper with the base station on the roof of the Burlington House (now the Alliance Capital Building) across the street from the hotel and into the AT&T land-line telephone system. Mr. Cooper commented, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life."
This first cell phone call really caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place.