The first call from a portable mobile phone was made in New York in 1973. Cooper was at the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street at the time of the call.

The world’s first portable mobile phone call was made on April 3, 1973 by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper. He picked up his prototype DynaTAC 8000X cell phone and called Bell Labs to report that he had been able to make a call from the portable device.

For the first conversation, Martin Cooper chose his competitor and colleague from Bell Labs, Joel Engel. He dialed the number, but the first connection attempt failed – the conversation was interrupted.

Cooper tried again, and this time the connection was successful. Cooper then uttered the first words ever spoken over a cell phone: “Joel, I’m calling you on a cell phone, a real cell phone – a personal portable device. I carry it with me in my bag, and you can hear me.”

It was a short but historic DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone call that opened the door to a new era of long-distance communication.

The DynaTAC 8000X was the world’s first portable mobile phone. It weighed almost 1 kg, measured 23 x 13 x 4.5 cm, and cost about $4,000 (which, adjusted for inflation, would be about $11,500 today). Its battery was charged for 10 hours and provided conversations lasting only 30 minutes. It used analog communication technology and could only work within the range of the nearest base station.

After that first call, Motorola began to develop and improve mobile phones that became more affordable and convenient to use.

Although the first mobile phones were very expensive and bulky, they ushered in a new era of long-distance communication and served as the starting point for the development of the technologies we use today. Today, mobile phones are an integral part of our everyday life.