Martin Cooper: Man Who Made First Cell Phone Call
On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper stood on the sidewalk of Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue with a brick-sized device and made the first public call from a cell phone to one of the men with whom he had been competing to develop the device.
Cooper, an engineer at Motorola at the time, said to Joel Engel, the head of AT&T-owned Bell Labs, “I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone.”
A decade would pass before the average consumer could purchase a cell phone, but anyone walking by Cooper on that day could have witnessed history being made.
In the fifty years since that first phone call, Cooper’s cumbersome device has been replaced by a vast array of thinner, faster phones that are now ubiquitous and reshaping industries, culture, and the way we relate to ourselves.
Cooper stated that the possibility that mobile phones would one day be deemed indispensable by a large portion of humanity was evident from the beginning, despite the fact that the vast reach and impact of cell phones may have surprised some.
According to CNN, Cooper, who is now 94 years old, said that he was not surprised that everyone had a cell phone. He explained that they used to tell a story that one day, when a person was born, they would be assigned a phone number and that not answering the phone would result in death.
The proliferation of cell phones
Prior to that first call, Motorola competed with AT&T’s legendary Bell Labs, which had developed the transistor and other innovations, to develop a cell phone.
Cooper recalled that they had been a little company in Chicago while the other company was the biggest in the world, and they just didn’t think they were very important.
Cooper recalls that his rival wasn’t quite as thrilled to receive the call as he was to make it.
Cooper informed CNN that he had indicated he was not averse to rubbing Engel’s nose in the thing and that Engel had been polite to him. Cooper further stated that Joel did not recall the phone call to this day, and Cooper did not blame him, as CNN was unable to contact Engel.
After Cooper’s first call, he said, manufacturing issues and government regulation slowed the phone’s introduction to the public. Cooper recalls how the Federal Communications Commission, where he now serves as a consultant, struggled to determine how to divide radio channels to ensure competition.
The DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) phone would not be available for purchase for a decade, costing $3,900. The phone, similar to the one used by Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street,” weighed 2.5 pounds and measured approximately one foot in height.
Compare this to the iPhone 14, which weighs 6 ounces and measures just under six inches, or any of the $200-$300 Android budget smartphones.
“Trying to improve the human experience”
The modern cell phone didn’t take off until the 1990s, when it shrunk dramatically and became much more user-friendly. According to a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind.
Cooper has written a book on the transformative power of the cell phone, founded companies, and made media appearances in the years since that first call. However, he does not necessarily embrace every aspect of contemporary technological advancements.
Cooper stated that there were too many engineers who were focused on technology, gadgets, and hardware, but had forgotten that the main objective of technology was to enhance people’s lives. He mentioned that people tend to forget this and he had to constantly remind them, adding that the aim of technology was to improve the human experience.
In retrospect of the past 50 years, Cooper is generally pleased with where the phone has led us. Himself an iPhone user (and previously a Samsung user), he enjoys using his Apple Watch to track his swimming activity and connect his hearing aids to his iPhone. And Cooper stated that he views the technological advancement as a net benefit to society.
The speaker stated that they were a pessimist and acknowledged the disadvantages of cell phones, including the potential for people to become dependent on them. They also reported that Cooper had pointed out that individuals were walking across the street while talking on their cell phones.
Overall, I believe the cell phone has improved humanity, and I expect this trend to continue.
Martin Cooper: Man Who Made First Cell Phone Call
