Mobile phones in the UK - timeline
- 1959 Britain's first car radio telephone service begins in South Lancashire. Connection costs £195 (more than £3000 in today's money). There were only six channels meaning only six calls could take place at the same and all calls had to be placed through the operator. There were only eighty-six subscribers by 1963 and the GPO was making a loss on the service.
- 1965 The GPO's car radio telephone service is introduced in London, timed to coincide with the opening of the Post Office Tower. The Postmaster General made the first call to Richard Dimbleby. Calls cost from 1s 5d for the first three minutes.
- 1973 Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the world's first cell phone call in New York using a prototype Dyna TAC phone. A commercial version of the handset would not be available for another ten years.
- 1979 The world's first cellular telephone service begins in Japan.
- 1981 The NMT service starts.
- 1983 The UK's first automatic car radio phone service started. A cellular phone service begins in the USA and the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is launched, the world's first hand portable mobile phone.
- 1985 Cellnet and Vodafone, two rival operators launch Britain's first cellular telephone service.
- 1991 The first phone to match the GSM standard, the Orbitel TPU 900, is launched. Vodafone begins the first digital (GSM) service. It targets executives travelling to Europe.
- 1993 Mercury launch the One2One service. It is aimed at consumers with the promise of free evening and weekend calls. Vodafone launches its own consumer digital service, MetroDigital.
- 1994 Nokia launches the Nokia 2110, a business phone with a choice of ring tones. Number seven is the famous 'Nokia tune'.
- 1994 Orange service launched. Competition for new customers is hot.
- 1996 Motorola launches a new premium handset, the StarTAC. It is about the same size as an American Express Gold card and sells for £1400.
- 1996 Vodafone introduces the UK's first non-contract phone service. Vodafone Prepaid is aimed at people with poor credit history.
- 1997 One2One announces the first digital pay-as-you-go service 'Up 2 You'.
- 1999 Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda compete to sell Pay and Go phones at discounted prices. Prices drop to £39.99 for a basic phone on one of the four networks.
- 2001 The Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse goes on sale in November 2001. It is the first phone available in the UK with a colour screen. The Ericsson T68 was in the shops by December.
- 2002 On 31 May T-Mobile launches the UK's first picture messaging service. For £20 extra per month uses can send picture on their mobile phones. The Sony Ericsson T68i is the first phone available on this service.
- 2002 Nokia launches the 7650, Europe's first phone with a built in camera. It is available in the UK in August 2002
- 2003 On 2 March 2003 Hutchinson launches the UK's first 3G service, '3'. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, makes the first phone call on '3'.
- 2007 Steve Jobs announces the Apple iPhone to the World.
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