What year did you get your first mobile phone?

ForestFire

GBX wrote: »

1998 - Nokia 5110

This is the first I remember at least.

Was in 3rd year in college and got it when heading off on work placement.

Sleeper12

1996 Nokia 8110. The banana phone. Relaunched after the first Matrix movie in 1999 /2000

AllForIt

Nokia 1998 or 99. Don't recall the model number. Loved playing snake at lightening speed. My hand got more and more sweaty the longer I progressed and would die for that reason as my fingers would slip due to the sweat. That's my excuses anyway.

Oops69

the ericsson brick thing in 1995

Teddy Daniels

corcaigh1 wrote: »

Same number lol...fair play! Obviously an 087 number!

I've the same number since 1996 Nokia 1610 iirc.

kieran.

1999 Mitsubishi Trium bought me and the now wife one for Xmas!

appledrop

1999 Ericsson. Wouldn't have a clue about the model. All I know was that it was blue + we all got one in college with some special offer that meant we got €50 free credit. We thought we were minted. I'd say that €50 lasted for months. We would never ever ring each other during the day as cost so much back then on ready to go. So we all still used to agree to meet by arts block/library etc at set time. I think we were better off as people too quick to be late now as can call/ text with an excuse. Back then you would get an earful if you left someone waiting for more than 10 mins!

Rubberchikken

nokia 5110.
was a good phone. always the same number though. took long enough to remember it so wont be changing

Sardonicat

appledrop wrote: »

1999 Ericsson. Wouldn't have a clue about the model. All I know was that it was blue + we all got one in college with some special offer that meant we got €50 free credit. We thought we were minted. I'd say that €50 lasted for months. We would never ever ring each other during the day as cost so much back then on ready to go. So we all still used to agree to meet by arts block/library etc at set time. I think we were better off as people too quick to be late now as can call/ text with an excuse. Back then you would get an earful if you left someone waiting for more than 10 mins!

Surely you mean £50? We didn't change to euro til 2002

Strumms

Just found this while doing a clear out. About 20 years old, wasn’t a great phone but as cool as **** looking, still is in fact.

Wheety

98 or 99. An luminous green Alcatel.

jimbobaloobob

1999
Didn't know what text messages were for about 6 months until I asked someone why there was an envelope icon flashing on the screen all the time.
Still have the same number and had the same SIM card up until 2017

endacl

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

2000 - Nokia 5110, bulletproof, 16 year old Jimmy dropped it many times and the worst thing that happened was the battery fell off. It's still in a box in the attic and I reckon it'd still work

Probably wouldn’t even need to charge it.

donotvalidate

2000. A Mitsubishi Trium with a flip down bit for speaking into and a pull up aerial. I was da bomb..........site

touts

December 1995

https://m.gsmarena.com/ericsson_go_118-97.php

I remember going into an eircell store and I had a choice between the old Analogue 088 network or the new digital 087 network. Then I could pick out the phone from a selection of three or four different models. Then the guy behind the counter pulled out an A4 sheet with a list of all the available numbers he had. I could go down through it and pick a number I liked and that I thought would be easy to remember. Then he rooted through a box and got the aim that matched the number. Took about 4-5 days before it was active.

Still have the same number. Pretty sure the phone is in a box somewhere around the house.

punisher5112

touts wrote: »

December 1995

https://m.gsmarena.com/ericsson_go_118-97.php

I remember going into an eircell store and I had a choice between the old Analogue 088 network or the new digital 087 network. Then I could pick out the phone from a selection of three or four different models. Then the guy behind the counter pulled out an A4 sheet with a list of all the available numbers he had. I could go down through it and pick a number I liked and that I thought would be easy to remember. Then he rooted through a box and got the aim that matched the number. Took about 4-5 days before it was active.

Still have the same number. Pretty sure the phone is in a box somewhere around the house.

Was it 087654321

200motels

punisher5112 wrote: »

Was it 087654321

A Ericsson from speak easy in 1998 and I still use the same number.

Stone Gossard

200motels wrote: »

A Ericsson from speak easy in 1998 and I still use the same number.

Were you an early bird or a night owl ?

willowthewisp

1999, Panasonic. If i am right it wa one of the first vibrating phones.

1996. Ericsson GH388. A superb phone.

return guide

1990 - Used to carry one of these around in a Tesco bag, needed it for work in London. A company used to rent them out,had to get rid of it after a few weeks - cost a fortune on calls and rent. Back to the BT phonecard.

https://goo.gl/images/VZ7r3B

The high horse brigade

Grandeeod wrote: »

1995. A Maxon.

Same for me. I could stir my coffee with the antenna

OldMrBrennan83

All those T9 keyboards were the death of spelling and grammar.

waxmelts2000

1996 Panasonic and still have the same number !

Blazer

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

1996 new job, new phone

Nokia 5110

Same, 1996.
Only problem was I was the first of my friends to have one so apart from the parents and the nana there was no one else to ring

flazio

Ericsson GF768 on Eircell RTG in 1999.
Still have the number.
My dad had a blue one as his phone. When he upgraded to a Nokia 5110 he didn't like it so took my red one. Anyone ever make up their own network logos on e-merge.ie
My dad also has his original number, sort of, his 087 number had 6 numbers before needing to add a 2 to the front of it. I remember his sim card used to be the size of a Telecom Eireann call card.

NewbridgeIR

Late 1995, Ericsson 118 as mentioned above.
Have only had three more phones since then
2000
2005
2016

Alun

Amateurs the lot of you ... I had one of these ...

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/VINTAGE-MOBILE-PHONE-PHILIPS-PWR9040-NMT-900-RARE-/253376757801

... back in 1990 when I lived in the Netherlands. Wasn't even GSM, but on an older network called NMT.

flazio

Alun wrote: »

Amateurs the lot of you ... I had one of these ...

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/VINTAGE-MOBILE-PHONE-PHILIPS-PWR9040-NMT-900-RARE-/253376757801

... back in 1990 when I lived in the Netherlands. Wasn't even GSM, but on an older network called NMT.

088 was NMT, 087 (and subsequently 086, 085 etc) were GSM.

colm_mcm

1999 - Motorola D520 on eircell “Ready to Go”
Complete with ‘my eircell number is 087_______’ stickers


Think the brother got his in 1998 - a Philips Diga.


We only discovered texting by accident. It wasn’t really promoted at the time IIRC.