A Mobile Phone in 1990

When mobile phones were first sold in Australia in 1981, the people who sold them were shysters, crooks and thieves. It's 2010 and nothing much has changed. By comparison, used car salesmen and real estate agents are trustworthy, honest, upright and worthy citizens. That said, I paid $1700 and a $300 deposit which after I left Telstra, took me over two years to get back. It was the best money I ever spent. This is not a diatribe against salesmen - I've been one - so if you're one of the good guys, read on.

Twenty years after my first mobile phone, it is interesting to note that my original Motorola 8800 analogue phone had 50 speed-dial numbers and moving them around was considerably easier than my current phone with ten speed-dial numbers. Technology doesn't always move forward.

To say that phone saved my life may be a stretch but it felt like it at the time. I was working night shifts as a cab driver in Sydney which no matter what you hear is lots of fun. But I was uncontactable and losing all my few friends at a rate. I was meeting a tremendous cross-section of society in the cab and they were vastly entertaining but those I held nearest and dearest were slipping away from me.

Once the mobile number got around, Carolyn, my dearest but almost estranged sister (I can think of no other way to describe her at the time), rang me and talked to me for 45 minutes. Gee. We'd hardly spoken twenty words in as many years and she rang me and spoke for 45 minutes! I don't want to hear about the good old days and complaints about bad mannered people with phones and kids making video of violence. A phone is phone and my life changed forever. I have hardly ever been without a mobile phone ever since. That said, that old analogue from Motorola was some phone - I made calls from places I still can't believe - out at sea twenty miles, under the Harbour (tunnel), out fishing on the rocks and many late night calls from a hard working
taxi which kept my friends close and social life alive. In places like the taxi and on the rocks, I sometimes left it turned off but it was great comfort to know that it was there.

I made calls from Dee Why Headland late at night while rock-fishing and the connection went through Gosford! I was alive and well on the rocks and "Please don't call the Police". These days they have GPS chips and Policemen can find lost bushwalkers who are in range of a tower and have their phones on. What's up with that? Sure, it will be abused but would you change it. No way. 2010 is a nice place to be for all the troubles in the world. At least, because of improved communications, we now know what's going on out there. Some of the time ...
Christopher