Comedian Ernie Wise made first ever UK mobile call and 29 other
fascinating phone facts
Since that first call was made from a mobile 30 years ago today, they have developed from bulky black bricks to sleek smartphones
It’s almost impossible to remember a time when our lives weren’t dominated by mobile phones – even though they have only actually been around for three decades.
Since that first call was made from a mobile 30 years ago today, they have developed from bulky black bricks to sleek smartphones.
Here are the essential facts and mobile milestones...
- The first official UK mobile phone call was made by comedian Ernie Wise on New Year’s Day 1985. But an earlier call was made that day to Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of what was then Racal Vodafone, by his son Michael, who said: “Hi, it’s Mike. Happy New Year. This is the first-ever call on a UK mobile network.”
- In its first year, Vodafone had just 100 base stations and 12,000 customers in Britain. Now the company has 438 million customers worldwide and has 11,000 base stations in the UK alone.
- The first mobiles only had a charge which lasted 30 minutes. They weighed around 12lbs – now many models weigh as little as 3oz.
- Mungo Park was the first person to buy a mobile phone in the UK. He bought a VM1 Panasonic in-car model for £1,200. He said: “The impact of the phone was fantastic, adding an extra 90 minutes to my day.”
- 44bn minutes of mobile calls were made in the UK in June-Sept, 2014 - an average seven minutes per day per phone.
- In 1992, a huge royal scandal erupted when mobile calls between Princess Diana and James Gilbey were made public. The affair became known as Squidgygate.
Royal flushed: Princess Di with husband Charles - Surveys reveal that 15% of people admit to interrupting sex to answer a call.
- In 1985, phone salesman Steve Philip was stopped by security staff while at a function in Buckingham Palace because they feared his bulky mobile was a bomb.
- Thefts of mobiles account for a third of all street robberies in London.
- German engineer Friedhelm Hillebrand devised the standard 160-character text length based on the belief it could convey almost any thought. This was also the inspiration for the 140-character limit later adopted by Twitter.
- A poll revealed that 63% of women and 73% of men don’t let an hour pass without checking phones for missed calls or messages.
- Mobile phones are said to carry 18 times more bacteria than toilet handles.
- In 2008 James Abdale, from Norwich, was presented with a mobile phone bill for £588,198. He had to battle with Vodafone to have the total amended after what turned out to be a clerical error. Celina Aarons, from Florida, is believed
to have racked up the largest legitimate mobile phone bill – an eye-watering £142,000. - Across the globe, six billion people possess a mobile phone – but only 4.5 billion have a toilet.
- The Nokia 1100 is the best-selling mobile phone and the best-selling electrical device ever, with 250 million units snapped up.
- Many mobiles now contain more power than the computers used to mastermind the Apollo 11 moon landing.
- Mobile phone usage has increased so much it has led to the invention of the term Nomophobia – the fear of being denied mobile phone contact. A study found that half of Brits suffer anxiety if they lose their phone, run out of battery or credit, or lose coverage. And 9% suffer stress when their phone is off.
- Almost 250,000 patents go into putting together the technology in a smart phone.
- There are now 83 million mobile phone subscriptions in the UK and 35% of those use smartphones.
- Since 2011 the number of calls made from mobiles has exceeded calls made from landlines.
- An estimated 4.3 million people around the world are having a conversation on a mobile every second.
- 100,000 mobile phones are dropped down the toilet in the UK every year
- There are expected to be more mobiles than people in the world in 2015. This is already the case in 100 countries.
- Earlier this year the Queen remarked on how “strange” it was to greet crowds of people and not look into their eyes but into the lenses of their mobiles instead. Her Majesty does use a mobile phone herself to stay in touch with her grandchildren.
- Driving while using a mobile was banned in 2003. Around 8,000 people a year in England and Wales have since been charged and taken to court for the offence.
- There were 1.7 billion mobiles sold in 2012. The three biggest sellers were Samsung, Nokia and Apple handsets – with combined sales of 850 million.
- The section of society which texts the most is, unsurprisingly, 12-15-year-olds, who each send an average 193 texts a week.
- The world’s most valuable mobile is the £10.6million iPhone 5 Black Diamond. The home button is a 26-carat deep-cut black diamond – one of 600 gems that cover the phone’s surface.
- In March, a mobile was used to exact revenge on a fraudster who failed to deliver a games console he’d paid for. Edd Joseph got the guy’s mobile number, and texted the entire works of Shakespeare to the bogus seller, so that each section would buzz through in 29,305 infuriating chunks. Thus tying up his phone for over a week.
- At the grand old age of 30, the first mobile phones have already become retro – and trendsetters are paying a premium for handsets from the 1990s. Sales of old-school bulky models made by Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola can change hands for as much as £800 each. They may be big – but they are simple, sturdy and have batteries that stay charged for up to a week.
