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Report from Telecom '87 - fascinating insight into how things used to be! |
Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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Found this on the BBC website, an old edition of the Money Programme from 1987 about the state of the fledgeling mobile phone industry and a report from the Telecom 87 trade show! 
You'll probably have to register a BBCi ID, but it's free and worth it for this blast from the past!
Highlights include seeing lots of yuppies walking about with these huge brick mobile phones, an insight into the fragmented and various systems in use back then, someone saying how far ahead Ericsson was in the game back then, and someone soldering parts onto a huge mobile PCB BY HAND!
There's no sound in places, so don't worry about that but this I think is intentional. And be warned, the video is nearly 12 minutes long and 42Mb big!
Enjoy!
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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...and I was one of those yuppies having got my first phone (pictured) in 1986... but there wasn't much choice in those days, not for handhelds. Most were transportables (like carrying a briefcase everywhere)
I'm looking forward to view the actual video after lunch
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shaliron
Joined: Jan 15, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Melbourne, Australia
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Nice phone masseur:lol:
I love the big tactile keys...
A wooden spoon is a spoon made from wood. Source: WikipediaWinner of: Best Thread (Huge SE Portfolio) 2007, Best Post (Huge SE Portfolio) 2007, Best Signature 2007, and 2nd Best Nickname 2007. |
Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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I bet you had red braces, a Porsche 911 and carried a huge filofax! 
I was a tad too young to have one of those early mobiles (according to the vid they cost over £1,000!  ) and i suspect coverage was very dodgy outside of major cities and road networks (bit like some networks' 3G systems at the mo!)
Dad had one of those huge 'over the shoulder' mobiles in the late '80s, think it was a Panasonic or something like that. It weighed a ton! And had the old fashioned carphones in his company Ford Orion diesel ( ), the handset up front, big aerial stuck to the rear window, and a huuuuge box in the boot! But I thought it was brilliant at the time
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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that NEC cost me $5500 australian dollars. I had to actually lease it over 2 years to pay it off!
It didn't even initially have the capability to store names against the phone number so the 100 capacity phone book consisted of just 100 numbers! so a good memory was required to know which position releated to which person!
fortunately NEC realised the problem and provided an upgrade called alpha-tag which allowed the numbers to be stored against names and they then put the usual lettering on the numeric keypad
and texting messages was the something from science fiction! 
those were the days!
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[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2006-03-19 14:18 ] |
Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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ahhhh, those were the days!
perhaps this vid woukd be a good history lesson for younger members on how mobiles started and the state the industry was in while they were still toddlers or even being born!
damn i sound old!
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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Posted: 2006-03-19 14:08
