Cell phone industry celebrates its 25th birthday

From the Motorola "Brick" to the iPhone, cell phones have certainly come a long way in the past quarter of a century. The Motorola DynaTAC handset was the first commercial cell phone. It weighed about 2.5 pounds and cost nearly $4,000 It was 25 years ago today, October 13, 1983, that the very first commercial cell phone call was made. Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile communications, called Alexander Graham Bell's nephew from Chicago's Soldier Field using a Motorola DynaTAC handset, referred to as the "Brick" because of its hefty size. Weighing in at 2.5 pounds, the phone wasn't exactly portable. And it was expensive, retailing for about $3,995. Cell phone service back in those days was also pricey, costing $50 a month just for the service, plus 40 cents a minute at peak hours and 24 cents a minute at off-peak times.... [read full story]