A blast from the past (**Explored)

I had no idea that my dad kept a collection of his old cellphones and was surprised to see him bring out his stash. I don't think any of them are in working condition and if they did, there was no way to find out as their original chargers are no longer around. 😊

 

What surprised me was that he also kept my old Ericsson GH 688, which I used between 1997 and 2000. This Ericsson unit traveled with me to Malawi, Africa where I was posted for three months in June 1998. It continued to serve me faithfully until I upgraded to the unreliable Ericsson T28s flip phone in mid 2000.

 

I can however identify the earliest cellphone in this picture - the grey Nokia 101 (ETACS), which my father had back in 1992. It operated exclusively on the local Celcom ART 900 analog network and provided only basic telephony service.

 

That's right, neither the Nokia 101 phone nor the network had SMS texting or Caller ID feature! If you had a missed call, you wouldn't know who called you! The redial button was only meant for redialing the last outgoing call - not for incoming ones.

 

Its monochrome LCD display only showed the network ID, contact names, numbers, remaining battery power and signal strength, that's it.

 

I remember borrowing that Nokia 101 and stashing it in the back of my jeans pocket going to the mall. Since it was fairly long, the top part and the antenna showed above my pocket line in clear view of the public.

 

In 1992 cellphones were expensive, status symbol devices and anyone seen carrying one must be someone important like a businessman or a VIP! People often stared at me whenever I received a call on that brick, lol. 😃

 

BTW, you know you're that old if you've actually used an analog cellphone in your late twenties! 😸

 

 

Thanks everyone for the views and the faves, much appreciated! 😊

Done