For me, it was 2010.
Not long before then, cellphones were considered the province of the very wealthy. And when I say wealthy, man, do I mean wealthy! I remember occasionally seeing people back in the mid-'90s carrying cellphones around, but I could tell they were people with a lottttt of money!
I think the reason I got a cellphone was that I decided it was time to abandon my landline because Cincinnati Bell wouldn't do anything about the harassing phone calls that I got nonstop for 25 years.
The first time I got a smartphone was 2016. By that time, I think the only phones you could get were smartphones.
During 2009 when my job gave me a voucher to go buy one. I liked not being reachable at all times and didn't see a personal need for a cell phone.
I got one in 2003 when I took a position which moved me from St Louis to Norfolk. My new position required a lot of traveling and it was cheaper than paying hotel long distance rates. (Remember them?) Very basic with just talk and text which is all I had until 2014 when I finally broke down and got a smart phone.
FWIW, you don't have to have a smart phone. There are still companies like Nokia that still sell basic "dumb" phones. There are caveats like making sure it has at least 4G capability as the major service providers no longer support earlier standards in many areas and are letting old infrastructure die and be removed rather than replace it.
2006 for the old style cell phones.
2001. I was flying, had to meet some people over there -and finally decided I need one. Airport was a mess as TSA was taking over checkpoints from private guys that day...
Christmas 1999. My parents gave me a mobile phone for Christmas (I still have the same mobile number, though of course not the same phone). It was long enough ago that the phone said "Bell Atlantic Mobile." I had seen the writing on the wall when my car broke down one morning in the summer of 1999 on my way to the federal courthouse for a hearing. The lady behind me at the red light let me use her mobile phone. For many years, I jealously guarded my mobile number for reasons similar to what Max Rockatansky notes–I had some work colleagues I knew would not respect personal boundaries, vacation time, etc., and I didn't want to be on call 24/7. I got my first smartphone in 2011 when the iPhone became available on Verizon Wireless. (I had previously had a work-issued Blackberry, but I used it only for e-mail and didn't have phone service active because they didn't pay for phone service.)
There are definitely still non-smartphones available. The AARP magazine/newsletter usually has ads for some of those.
2000, Sprint
Then switched a year later to VoiceStream. Remember them?
Quote from: skluth on January 05, 2023, 11:06:16 AM
FWIW, you don't have to have a smart phone. There are still companies like Nokia that still sell basic "dumb" phones. There are caveats like making sure it has at least 4G capability as the major service providers no longer support earlier standards in many areas and are letting old infrastructure die and be removed rather than replace it.
It looks like
the one I recently got (https://www.verizon.com/basic-phones/sonim-xp5s/) from Verizon is no longer available, but they have twelve other models of "basic phone" still available.
For what it's worth, my parents got one in the late 90s to take along in the car. I graduated and left home in 1999.
My parents had one as far back as 1995-96.
My first personal cellphone was purchased/activated in 1999, under the old Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, just months before it became Verizon.
2005.
That first cell phone actually ended up in Lake Michigan due to me being a corny douche and wearing it on a shitty, plastic belt clip. Bumped the railing on a pier with it and plooonk! Goodbye first cell phone! (It was winter so there was no going in after it.)
Quote from: bandit957 on January 05, 2023, 10:33:33 AM
I think the reason I got a cellphone was that I decided it was time to abandon my landline because Cincinnati Bell wouldn't do anything about the harassing phone calls that I got nonstop for 25 years.
Good lord! I hope that's your hyperbole about robocalls.
In 2002, I received a work-provided NEXTEL phone without an actual phone number. Since several of my friends and family had the same walkie-talkie service, I didn't bother with actual telephone service because I could still reach everyone important in my life. Besides, I was usually less than 5 miles from home. If I took a much longer trip, I'd borrow my wife's cell phone for emergencies.
I resisted getting a cell phone plan of my own until a few years later, which was a few months before my daughter was born. Family, nights, and weekends were free but texting and data was an alien concept because I just didn't need it. I figured you just call me, see me, write me, or email me and that would cover all bases of communication.
I received a work-issued smartphone in 2011. Texting didn't cross my mind until a co-worker sent me a message and I was afraid to answer it until I knew these sorts of things were free.
My father-in-law had a brick phone since the late-1980s and my dad had a rarely-needed "car phone" which was about half the size of an attaché case. I recall he mumbled it was 25 cents a minute in 1990 or so; the company covered the extravagant service but he was on the hook for the actual calls.
It's amazing how much previous cellphone culture has come and gone; waiting until nights to call for free, the interference of a 2G phone with a CD player, data being really stubborn and slow to get some highway travel information...
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 05, 2023, 10:40:29 AM
During 2009 when my job gave me a voucher to go buy one. I liked not being reachable at all times and didn't see a personal need for a cell phone.
When I worked on the railroad, we got pagers in addition to our company radios (probably for folks like me that split the difference on an arc-shaped territory and lived in the "middle", but too far away from the railroad's radio system). I got into consulting during the days when most folks that had cell phones got them partially or fully paid for as a business expense. As some of our folks got into higher demand to help with projects in other time zones, there was a huge push by our project managers and some of our client for us to get cell phones. Since that additional cost would come directly out of our bonuses paid to our Board of Directors, the Chairman pronounced that "you'all have reached a level where you do not need to bothered anymore with after-hour work assignments". I was thrilled, since I had been on-call 24/7/365 for a bunch of years.
I didn't get a cell phone for another 20 years.
My family had one that I periodically carried starting in 1995. I had my own starting in 1999.
Around 2005, a flip phone.
You might not like Apple, but before the iPhone and revamped Android, software on "smart" phones was straight up garbage. To get to my own pictures, I had to navigate a menu that went something like Verizon -> Get it Now (promotional stuff like paid ringtones) -> Pictures -> My Pictures. There was a hard limit of 50 text messages (max 140 chars each) and if you didn't perma-delete the old ones, you'd run out of room. The web browser was like breathing through a straw.
Android at the time was pretty much Linux on a Blackberry (I was at a startup working on embedded at the time) and when the iPhone was unveiled they knew they had to adapt. Carriers tend to have their sticky fingers in more places on Android (not universally, it varies) but that experience is still way better than 2005.
Quote from: kurumi on January 05, 2023, 12:18:38 PM
Around 2005, a flip phone.
You might not like Apple, but before the iPhone and revamped Android, software on "smart" phones was straight up garbage. To get to my own pictures, I had to navigate a menu that went something like Verizon -> Get it Now (promotional stuff like paid ringtones) -> Pictures -> My Pictures. There was a hard limit of 50 text messages (max 140 chars each) and if you didn't perma-delete the old ones, you'd run out of room. The web browser was like breathing through a straw.
Android at the time was pretty much Linux on a Blackberry (I was at a startup working on embedded at the time) and when the iPhone was unveiled they knew they had to adapt. Carriers tend to have their sticky fingers in more places on Android (not universally, it varies) but that experience is still way better than 2005.
On my old flip phone, I think I had to spend 25 cents each time I wanted to transfer a photo to my computer. So I very rarely ever used this phone for photos.
2009 for me (grade 9). It was a flip phone I used mainly to text my Mom when to pick me up from after-school clubs (the City bus was a lot slower).
October 1998. Just happened in on a Bell Atlantic store and got myself a Kyocera with texting capabilities, but only by using the numbers on the keypad. Basically got it to stop having to use payphones when I was in college or at work (I traveled quite a bit). The first time I used one was in 1994, when I went to Pink Floyd at the old Foxboro Stadium senior year and one of the guys brought his parents Motorola car phone.
2002, I got a Kyocera prepaid cell phone with Virgin Mobile service when I went to college so I could stay in touch with my parents while out of my apartment. I didn't get a "real" phone (a Motorola RAZR on Verizon) until I graduated from college.
My first *bag phone*, which needed to be plugged into a car's cigarette lighter, was around 1992.
Probably 2002. My resistance broke down after I got into two emergencies where a cell phone would have been useful. That was just a basic flip phone.
It took until 2018 when I upgraded to a smartphone. Aside from my being generally a slow adopter of new technology, until my fifth eye surgery in 2017, I couldn't read a smartphone screen without a magnifying glass. (Still could drive -- my problems were with short-range reading vision.)
1997, same year as I graduated college and moved into my first house. Still have the same phone number. Never saw a need for a land line after college, so didn't get one in the house in order to keep telemarketers from calling, back when you paid for minutes. Gray candybar Nokia with monochrome screen that I probably dropped 130 times without breaking. Don't make them like that anymore, but infinitely more useful now.
1994, got a bag phone mainly for vehicle breakdowns.
2004, IIRC. A flip phone I think.
1992. It was hard-wired into my car. For a number of reasons, I gave it up after about a year, and then did not get another cell phone until about 1996.
2008, at a ripe young age because I was going on a summer school trip and needed to stay in touch.
Went from a Nokia 6263 (which had a dual screen and no 3.5mm jack) to a Nexus S to an HTC M7 to an LG G7 to a Google Pixel 7 Pro.
2009, when my timing belt broke as I was coming down NV 207. I was able to coast into a 7-11 parking lot, and the 7-11 somehow had one of the few remaining old-style pay phones. I realized there really wasn't much choice any more. That one was just a little granny phone that had a very limited texting capability; I resisted a smart phone until 2015 when it was becoming obvious having one would be necessary going forward in modern society.
Quote from: MikieTimT on January 05, 2023, 02:05:17 PM
1997, same year as I graduated college and moved into my first house. Still have the same phone number. Never saw a need for a land line after college, so didn't get one in the house in order to keep telemarketers from calling, back when you paid for minutes. Gray candybar Nokia with monochrome screen that I probably dropped 130 times without breaking. Don't make them like that anymore, but infinitely more useful now.
Back in 2001 Sprint required a landline to get a cell...
2013. That was when I asked "santa" for a cell phone and got a Galaxy S III for Christmas. I was 12 years old.
Quote from: frankenroad on January 05, 2023, 03:34:37 PM
1992. It was hard-wired into my car. For a number of reasons, I gave it up after about a year, and then did not get another cell phone until about 1996.
Back in 2004, I bought a 10-year-old Lexus which still had the car phone attached. As it no longer had a dial tone, but I removed it after a few weeks of ownership.
Christmas 2006, after I got my driver license. My mom didn't want me to be without one when driving. The first one she got was a Tracfone, but we had a discussion about the pitfalls of such an arrangement and she returned it and got me a Motorola Razr from Cingular instead.
It would be after I graduated college and was working, likely around September 2000. At the engineering/surveying company where I worked, I was assigned to inspect some storm sewer and roadway construction and needed the phone for convenience.
I got my first phone (a Tracfone flip phone) in 2019 at the ripe old age of 11. I got it once I started school sports and I needed an easy method of communicating. My first (and current) smart phone was an iPhone 7S, which I got for Christmas two years later and have kept to this day.
First one was a Motorola RAZR. Forget the year.
2001 or 2002.
2005 or 06.
I got my first one in 1995 in college. It was a Nokia identical to the one the therapist used in "Twister."
I was way ahead of the curve when I got a BlackBerry in 2005. It was amazing being able to surf the web in the middle of BFE. I got my first iPhone in 2014 and have stuck with them since.
1993 or 1994. I was living in rural Alabama, where there was no local internet service available unless you were a student at a local college, paid for a commercial line, and this was in the day where 10¢/minute for long distance calls was an incredible deal.
Then an ISP set up shop in Montgomery. Montgomery was a local call to Alltel subscribers, and a cell phone plan was cheaper than statisfying Usenet/IRC addiction over long distance dialup.
The cellular modems of the day left a lot to be desired...but they did work...sorta.
I forget exactly what model I had. It was a Motorola and came in a portfolio style case. It wasn't a full-on bag phone. It was possible to connect an external antenna to improve reception in the car or from one's apartment.
Uhhh... 1996 or 1997. It was a Motorola F09HLD8415 flip phone, and the plan I had was 50 minutes peak (7 AM-8 PM) and 200 minutes nights/weekends (8 PM-7 AM and all day Saturdays and Sundays). I was very frugal in using the phone during the daytime.
Addendum: The carrier was Airtouch Cellular before they merged with Vodafone into Vodafone Airtouch and then became Verizon Wireless.
Quote from: ZLoth on January 05, 2023, 09:49:40 PM
I was very frugal in using the phone during the daytime.
I met my wife online when we were living 500 miles apart. My cell phone plan, which my parents were still paying for at the time, had unlimited nights and weekends. I used to call my new love at around 8:55 PM, and then we'd talk for three hours or whatever. Same thing the next day. Same thing the next day. I thought I was only racking up five minutes' talk time each day. Imagine my parents' shock when they got that first month's bill! They stopped paying for my phone after that... (I'm not even sure I had told them about her yet.)
2013. My mom was sick and wanted to be able to reach me quickly if I was needed as her medical POA.
2004. Virgin Mobile prepaid phone. The number is still listed as my Food Lion MVP card almost 20 years later.
Quote from: kphoger on January 05, 2023, 11:23:25 AMThen switched a year later to VoiceStream. Remember them?
Only because my roommate had a phone with them, and service was nonexistent outside major cities (you couldn't even count on service along Interstate corridors like you [mostly] can now).
The first phone I purchased was in 1999. It was one of the Motorola phones featured in
The Matrix, and it didn't work very well, so I returned it. Then I did a semester abroad in early 2000, saw how convenient it was to have one, and got whatever that Nokia phone was that was ubiquitous in the US around that time, the one with the stubby antenna at the top. Got it from BellSouth Mobility, which was then Cingular, and finally AT&T Wireless.
I wasn't able to give up having a landline completely until about ten years ago, since I couldn't always get a reliable signal in my apartment (the GSM standard in particular wasn't great inside brick buildings).
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 09, 2023, 12:07:00 PMI wasn't able to give up having a landline completely until about ten years ago, since I couldn't always get a reliable signal in my apartment (the GSM standard in particular wasn't great inside brick buildings).
Thankfully, the mobile phones nowadays include a "WiFi Calling" mode.
Quote from: ZLoth on January 09, 2023, 04:52:41 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 09, 2023, 12:07:00 PMI wasn't able to give up having a landline completely until about ten years ago, since I couldn't always get a reliable signal in my apartment (the GSM standard in particular wasn't great inside brick buildings).
Thankfully, the mobile phones nowadays include a "WiFi Calling" mode.
IF you have a decent internet connection.
Idea is not new, there were different versions of femtocell/picocell devices which were basically cell stations scaled down to serve a single house.
And looks like concept is flipping again, with 5G internet access ramping up - I believe it is designed for those who cannot get good internet connection otherwise, via cable or fiber
1992, after I graduated from UCLA.
2017. I was pretty "late" in getting one compared to other people my age.
1998 or 1999 for me, when costs started to get into a more reasonable range for service. I was just really careful not to use more minutes than I had. I'm thinking it was a Cellular One. I know I had it for my 1999 cross country trip, as did the person driving the other car in our group. Came in handy a few times when we got separated a bit.
2002. Still using that same number...
...but not continuously. Think I gave it up for a few years around 2007 or so, but got it back a year or two later/it was back in the Cingular/ATT pool
2004, at the beginning of 12th grade. Mostly just so that I could call home when I was ready to be picked up from chess club rather than having to keep asking to use the phone in the main office as I did previously.
Upgraded from a flip phone to Android in 2011.
2005, after I finally moved out from my parents place. Discovered it was easier just to use a cell instead of a landline.
2006, freshman year of high school
In 2001 when I was still in college but working at my internship which was a 45 minute drive away along not very busy county and state highways, and through a couple very small towns. I was working 2nd shift and driving home in freezing rain at 1AM. I slid off into the ditch just outside one of the small towns. There wasn't even a pay phone at the gas station in the town. I walked around town for about an hour looking for a porch light on to knock on a door so I could call my future wife and her dad to come get me. They ended up getting stuck about a mile outside of town, and the car's automatic locks locked them out of the car. Luckily I had the other key for that car so we could crawl our way home and get a tow truck in the morning. Anyway, that's what moved us to get our first cellphone, a Nokia brick phone with the changable face plates. A couple years later we got our first flip phones and each got our own instead of sharing one. In about 2015 we finally gave up our, for me, flip phone, and my wife, her slider phone when they both started going on the fritz and got our first android phones. We also then switched from US Cellular to Verizon Prepaid.
For me 1998.
My wife had one from 1990 to 1992 then she didn't get one again until 2002. She has the same number since 2002.
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 09, 2023, 12:07:00 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 05, 2023, 11:23:25 AM
Then switched a year later to VoiceStream. Remember them?
Only because my roommate had a phone with them, and service was nonexistent outside major cities (you couldn't even count on service along Interstate corridors like you [mostly] can now).
When I switched from Sprint to VoiceStream, literally every person in the VoiceStream store that day was switching away from Sprint and, while we were waiting for the sales agents to finalize our new service plans, we were all chatting about how crappy Sprint service was and how happy we all were to be switching away from them. Shortly thereafter, T-Mobile bought out VoiceStream, and I kept T-Mobile for the next eight years or so.
I lived in
a slight valley in Wheaton (https://goo.gl/maps/iLRm52c738JBVagq9) (because Illinois isn't flat) at the time and, with Sprint, I was having to walk two blocks up the hill in order to get enough cell service to make a phone call.
Quote from: kphoger on January 11, 2023, 09:33:18 AM
I lived in a slight valley in Wheaton (https://goo.gl/maps/iLRm52c738JBVagq9) (because Illinois isn't flat) at the time and, with Sprint, I was having to walk two blocks up the hill
In the snow, against the wind, both ways ...
Quotein order to get enough cell service to make a phone call.
I'm appreciating the irony of the Comcast/Xfinity truck in that streetview.
Quote from: kphoger on January 11, 2023, 09:33:18 AM
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 09, 2023, 12:07:00 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 05, 2023, 11:23:25 AM
Then switched a year later to VoiceStream. Remember them?
Only because my roommate had a phone with them, and service was nonexistent outside major cities (you couldn't even count on service along Interstate corridors like you [mostly] can now).
When I switched from Sprint to VoiceStream, literally every person in the VoiceStream store that day was switching away from Sprint and, while we were waiting for the sales agents to finalize our new service plans, we were all chatting about how crappy Sprint service was and how happy we all were to be switching away from them. Shortly thereafter, T-Mobile bought out VoiceStream, and I kept T-Mobile for the next eight years or so.
I lived in a slight valley in Wheaton (https://goo.gl/maps/iLRm52c738JBVagq9) (because Illinois isn't flat) at the time and, with Sprint, I was having to walk two blocks up the hill in order to get enough cell service to make a phone call.
The phones I bought in 1999, that didn't really work, were through Sprint. That, plus the fact that CDMA was very much the redheaded stepchild of GSM for the longest time (Apple wouldn't even introduce an iPhone that worked on CDMA networks until 2011), meant I never even considered Sprint.
Quote from: SkyPesos on January 09, 2023, 09:57:22 PM
2017. I was pretty "late" in getting one compared to other people my age.
2017 for me too, and I'm four years older than you. The last year or so before getting one was tough.
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 11, 2023, 11:12:36 AM
The phones I bought in 1999, that didn't really work, were through Sprint. That, plus the fact that CDMA was very much the redheaded stepchild of GSM for the longest time (Apple wouldn't even introduce an iPhone that worked on CDMA networks until 2011), meant I never even considered Sprint.
Having used T-Mobile and Verizon ever since then, and traveling to rural Mexico somewhat regularly, I've had to be very careful when purchasing a cell phone. A decade ago, for example, there were very few cell phones offered by my provider that would roam on Telcel's GSM towers in Mexico. It's a lot easier nowadays.
Quote from: kphoger on January 11, 2023, 11:16:52 AM
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 11, 2023, 11:12:36 AM
The phones I bought in 1999, that didn't really work, were through Sprint. That, plus the fact that CDMA was very much the redheaded stepchild of GSM for the longest time (Apple wouldn't even introduce an iPhone that worked on CDMA networks until 2011), meant I never even considered Sprint.
Having used T-Mobile and Verizon ever since then, and traveling to rural Mexico somewhat regularly, I've had to be very careful when purchasing a cell phone. A decade ago, for example, there were very few cell phones offered by my provider that would roam on Telcel's GSM towers in Mexico. It's a lot easier nowadays.
Oh, totally - before I got an iPhone, I had a special dual-band BlackBerry that I could use in GSM countries.
Seems like the equivalent nowadays is having a phone that's compatible with, say, 3G, but not 4G or 5G.
Early 2008. It was a silver LG flip phone. Service was from Alltel.
Looked like this:
(https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/UMsr8qDa.X5wo9SjM079Wg--~B/aD0zMTU7dz0yNDA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.dailyfinance.com/media/2008/02/lg-ax275.jpg)
Because I haven't moved in nearly 4 decades, I was just able to dig out my first BAMS bill, which is dated 11/1/90. I think the bag phone is upstairs in the attic. I also had an accessory with an RJ-45 jack, so I could stash the bag in the back of the vehicle and have a Trimline phone attached up front.
Quote from: davewiecking on January 12, 2023, 10:33:49 AM
RJ-45
For the uninitiated, that means Ethernet, a.k.a. 4-pair.
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2023, 11:27:34 AM
Quote from: davewiecking on January 12, 2023, 10:33:49 AM
RJ-45
For the uninitiated, that means Ethernet, a.k.a. 4-pair.
I think Dave meant an RJ-11 jack - I'm not sure the RJ-45 standard existed in 1990, and you definitely couldn't connect a Trimline phone to an RJ-45 jack.
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 12, 2023, 11:29:56 AM
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2023, 11:27:34 AM
Quote from: davewiecking on January 12, 2023, 10:33:49 AM
RJ-45
For the uninitiated, that means Ethernet, a.k.a. 4-pair.
I think Dave meant an RJ-11 jack - I'm not sure the RJ-45 standard existed in 1990, and you definitely couldn't connect a Trimline phone to an RJ-45 jack.
I'm pretty sure RJ-45 connectors had been around for a few years, but possibly only for trunk line systems. I'm not sure if non-keyed 8p8c connectors were around yet or not in 1990.
At any rate, yes, he probably meant RJ-11.
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2023, 12:04:44 PMI'm pretty sure RJ-45 connectors had been around for a few years, but possibly only for trunk line systems. I'm not sure if non-keyed 8p8c connectors were around yet or not in 1990.
Yeah, I couldn't tell you; I didn't become familiar with them until 1997.
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 12, 2023, 11:29:56 AM
Quote from: kphoger on January 12, 2023, 11:27:34 AM
Quote from: davewiecking on January 12, 2023, 10:33:49 AM
RJ-45
For the uninitiated, that means Ethernet, a.k.a. 4-pair.
I think Dave meant an RJ-11 jack - I'm not sure the RJ-45 standard existed in 1990, and you definitely couldn't connect a Trimline phone to an RJ-45 jack.
Oops. You are correct. RJ-11. It is of course possible to plug a (2 or 4 conductor) phone plug into an (8 conductor) Ethernet jack, but whether it accomplishes anything depends on how one wires the jack.
2008, Verizon flip phone
Quote from: SkyPesos on January 09, 2023, 09:57:22 PM
2017. I was pretty "late" in getting one compared to other people my age.
I got mine in 2017 as well much later than my peers. I got my mom's old iPhone 4S stripped of games and the internet.