Hey, where would we be ehh without our mobile phones now lol. Here is an interesting look back at them, and how they've amazingly changed over the years.
My boss and a workmate had them before me, probably back in the mid 90s. I avoided as long as possible, eventually getting a ‘pay as you go’ deal. It was flipping expensive in the early days. A far cry from my current £4.95 per month SIM only deal!
My boss, around 1990, had one similar in shape to the one 2nd left in the still above, but it had this humongous battery pack that it sat on that he had to lug around with it. All in it weighed a tonne.
My first ever mobile was a decent little silver thing lol (on Vodafone), but I can't remember what model it was!. I've been on all the networks btw, and I think o2 was one of my favourites, and 3-Three was the worst one. And my current one is Giffgaff.
In my experience O2 are by far the best. I've been with them for years and never have any issues. I've tried all the others previously, found them not as good. Giffgaff use the O2 network.
I remember arguing for one at work as I spent a lot of time travelling. Tipping point was when I flew back from Austria walked into office with boss sending men straight back to Heathrow to go to deal with a problem in Glasgow. I pointed out had he been able to contact me I’d have gone straight there. My Nokia 2110 arrived shortly after. Would have been 1996 I think
I was given a mobile phone when I switched jobs in 1997 and outside of work, was probably the first person I knew who had one. Ever since then, the only phone I have had has been my work phone because I didn't see the point of having two phones and I have always been allowed to use my work phone for personal use as well. But with the changes in working mainly from home, the use of other tech such as Teams to communicate at work, the phone is much less relevant for work now and my work phone is now 7 years old with a cracked screen and no sign of my employer changing it up any time soon. So last month, I finally decided to get a nice new phone of my own. So having been the first person I knew to have access to a mobile phone, I probably was one of the last people over the age of 10 in the country to have my own phone.
When they first game out I was one off them that said “won’t get one don’t need one”, after a while got one but only used minimally at first, just odd txt n call. However since introduction of smart phones I’d be lost without one. They are like Mobile computers these days, in fact if owt you can do too much with them because it’s scary how much personal stuff who have stored on them, i.e. Banking App. Saying that what a great invention and if someone had said you could as much as you can on them 20 years ago you would have laughed at them.
One of the reasons I decided it was finally time to get my own phone was that I realised that there are so many online services I use that had my work number and which use two factor authentication to log on, that if I left my employer and had to hand the phone back and lose access to the number, I'd be royally screwed. Took me ages to update my number on every account I could think of.
I was between jobs for a while in 2003 and bought my own personal one. Since then I’ve kept it and used it for work as well with them picking up any business related costs so when I leave/retire I don’t have that as a problem. I’d always relied on work laptops but last summer bought my own so now when I stop work I’m all set
Arr much?! I'm still on O2 pay as you go. Probably top up about three times a year with £10 each time. But I rarely use it outside, most of my usage is done at home over the wi-fi. Of course, it helps being a Billy NoMates.
For someone who lives on computers I never took to mobile phones. I was a late adopter. I remember my mum trying to convince me to get one. I suppose I'm not one for conversations, especially on a phone. I've never been one for gaming on a phone either, or scrolling through social media. Or taking photos. Why take a photo when you can just remember? It makes no sense to me. How people justify spending thousands on new phones is beyond me. Each to their own. A week ago I found out, after medical people were trying to get hold of me, that my phone no longer works for calls since Australia turned off the 3G network. They turned it off in October! Haha. I only use my phone for listening to podcasts.
