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Calling All Memories

May 1, 2017
Share a Memorable Mobile Phone Story and Be Featured in ISE Magazine: ISE EXPO is celebrating 25 transformative years of solutions and education this year! To help celebrate the changes […]

Share a Memorable Mobile Phone Story and Be Featured in ISE Magazine:

ISE EXPO is celebrating 25 transformative years of solutions and education this year! To help celebrate the changes in our industry, we want to highlight YOUR memories in an upcoming issue.

The first mobile phone call was made in 1973 by Motorola employee, Martin Cooper, who stood in midtown Manhattan and called Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey. And while your story may not be history-making, we are sure you have a fond memory, a funny story, or a job-related experience, related to those early days of mobile phones.

I bet you already have one in mind. So, submit your story via this link: http://iseexpo.com/calling-all-memories/. Add a picture of yourself for fun as well. We’ll publish the most interesting stories in the ISE EXPO 2017 November wrap-up issue of ISE magazine. One lucky winner, present on-site at ISE EXPO, will receive his or her choice of a smart watch.

To help spark your ideas, read a few of ISE team members’ fond memories. We bet they’ll make you smile.

Sarah, Circulation and Operations Manager My first cell phone was back in the early 90s: the ever-so-cool Motorola flip phone with an adjustable antenna to get the perfect connection! I became immediately addicted to it, that is, until I received my first cell phone bill. I learned a little control, but not much. I was hooked! Today, look how cool I am with my Nokia 5185i from the year 2000!

Compare today’s iPhone6 in the lower right to my first cell phone!

Karen, Managing Editor
We received our first mobile phone as a Thank You freebie when we bought a car in the early 1990s (Cellular One, manufactured by Motorola). This "big as a loaf of bread" phone came in its own carrying case with lots of cords and chargers so we could charge the phone in the car. Shortly thereafter, we were driving across the country from Wisconsin to California, and we stopped in a parking lot in the US Army Post Fort Ord on Monterey Bay. There, we made our first cell phone call to Jeff’s parents, who then lived in Illinois. (Jeff’s dad trained at Fort Ord when he was a young soldier.) We thought we were pretty cool, and Jeff’s dad was very surprised! A tag sewn into a seam of the carrying case reads: "Always secure your phone whenever it is in a moving vehicle by firmly attaching the seatbelt through the loop on the carry case. An unsecured telephone could cause serious injury of interfere with the safe operation of the vehicle. WARNING." We keep this phone in a closet now, along with other might-be-of-interest-someday technology hardware. Be safe, everyone!

Carrie, Vice President of Operations
I bought my first cell phone at the end of my freshman year at Iowa State University. It was the spring of 1999 and I was so excited to get the Nokia 5110 with the interchangeable faceplates. Oh, the fun of matching my cell phone faceplate with my outfit for the night! It was so easy to call home to my parents and connect with friends. No more calling cards! Of course, the first few bills came in and I was WAY over my minutes and had to learn some self control. I kept that phone for years, and to this day it is still one of my favorite phones.

Lisa, Production Manager My first cell phone was a Motorola "brick phone" back in the early 1990’s. It weighed around 2 lbs. and was approximately 10 inches long. It was too big to carry around so I placed it under the driver’s seat. It did come with a belt clip, which I never used for fear of bodily harm! The buttons were hard to push, the rates were extremely high, and let’s not get into the radiation it put off. It was gray and black; no color choices back then. I should have bought some fun little stickers to liven it up.

Mary Lou, Director of Marketing
My first "mobile phone" was in 1980. It was a car phone and operated on radio frequencies. Due to the limited channels that were available at that time, I was on a wait list for about 9 months with Bell Telephone in Philadelphia. After that I got the bag phone, flip phone, and numerous other models that I’m sure you all had too.

Laura, ISE EXPO Show Director My husband and I opened one of the first retail cell phone stores in our area in the late 1980’s. Before we opened the phone store, our first cell phone was actually a big car phone, which would usually be mounted in the trunk, that my husband reconfigured and dropped into a bag to use as a portable phone. He shortened and reworked the wires so it could be plugged into the car lighter for power. Wasn’t pretty but it worked!
Submit YOUR story via this link.
http://iseexpo.com/calling-all-memories/

Add a picture of yourself for fun as well. We’ll publish the most interesting stories in the ISE EXPO 2017 November wrap-up issue of ISE magazine.

One lucky winner, present on-site at ISE EXPO, will receive his or her choice of a smart watch.

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About the Author

Sharon Vollman | Editor-in-Chief, ISE Magazine

Sharon Vollman is Editor-in-Chief of ISE Magazine. She oversees the strategic direction and content for ISE Magazine. She also leads the educational content development for ISE EXPO. Vollman has created educational partnerships with the major communications and entertainment providers including AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Cincinnati Bell. She has covered the telecom industry since 1996. Prior to that, she worked in advertising with Ogilvy & Mather and CME. Vollman has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Advertising from the University of Iowa.