First mobile phone sold in Australia. Seen one?

[pfillery]

I have what I believe is the first model of "mobile" phone sold in Australia. I would say it is more of a portable car phone the size and weight of a briefcase full of pavers. I stumbled upon it in my shed a few weeks back and have unsuccessfully tried to google information on it. Can't even find a picture on the web.

They were affectionately known as a 007 unit as far as I know and were owned by Telstra (then telecom) as they cost thousands of dollars, and rented to users in the early to mid 80's, before analogue bricks were even thought of. They can't even tell me anything. Is anyone familiar with these or used them when they were out? I'll post a pic for interests sake when I get a chance. Unbelievably this one still works when a bit of 12v power is applied. Won't find a network since this is long gone. From the little info that I have, most of them were taken back by telecom and scrapped in the late 80's, some were modified by ham radio gurus as radio receivers, but I'd imagine it is raer to find something that google can't explain (seems that if it isn't on google it doesn't exist).

I was curious as to whether anyone knows the phone I'm talking about?

[Scouse]

A rich uncle had one of the first mobile phones, fitted to his new Alfa in the early '80s I think it was.

The phone numbers started with 007 so that's where that reference comes from.

And yes, it was like a brick !!

[clubagreenie]

From an article I found, 23/02/07.


Before that most mobile phones were usually permanently installed in vehicles as car phones.
The new service replaced a limited mobile network, known as Mobile Telephone System 007 (or PAMPS), which was introduced in 1981.
Telstra said the first mobile phones in Australia were about the size of a briefcase, cost more than $4000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes.

The era of the portable phone has now arrived

Mobilenet, Telecom's new cellular mobile telephone network service, will open in Sydney today. It will offer truly portable (hand-held) telephones and can support many more users than the current system, which is fast nearing capacity.
Telecom is offering a range of car, briefcase-sized and hand-held units and has also authorised a number of private companies to supply telephones for the new service.
Whatever brand of terminal you choose, you will have to pay Telecom a network-access fee of $600 a year.
All calls to and from Mobilenet telephone numbers will be charged at timed trunk-call rates. Telecom is offering three models in its Explorer range of cellular mobile telephone systems: The Traveller, permanently mounted in a vehicle.
The Attache, a briefcase-sized unit which can be either portable, vehicle-mounted, or both A walkie-talkie-sized device called Walkabout.

[abaddonxi]

Stuff that says Telstra on the front usually has a sticker on the back telling a name of the manufacturer.


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/06/789.jpg (http://laughingsquid.com/early-mobile-phones/)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/06/790.jpg



My first phone was a NEC P3. I missed out on a job after not checking my answering machine at the right time, and went out and bought it the next day.

http://www.nikgrey.com/forum-images/NEC%20P3.JPG

[Tombie]

I was 17 when I purchased my first mobile...

And NEC P5 with in car kit etc...

Cost me $5800.00 back then :eek:

Worst thing was I also had a multiline text Pager and often would be paged to "pls call xxxxxxxx" because no-one wanted the bill for calling a mobile :(

Wow have times changed!!!

[JDNSW]

I'm pretty certain mobile phone services were available in Sydney and Melbourne in the 1940s - but limited to about 30 subscribers in each city (as each had a dedicated VHF frequency), and the equipment was installed in your car.

John

[RangieBit]

I'm with Tombie,

Got my first mobile not long after the general AMPS service was activated down here in Melbourne. It was a Telstra Walkabout (NEC P3) and cost a significant snick of my monthly pay. I then had to save up again to get the car kit.

I too also had the pager and people would send similar "please call ..." messages to those Tombie got. In my case it seems they didn't understand the "new" phone number and thought someone had written it down wrong.

On a side note, apart from the usefulness to me as a support technician, it was actually cheaper to call my girlfriend in Sydney on the mobile than via landline at normal STD rates. That was actually the main motivator, truth be told :D.

Ah, those were the days.

Cheers,
Iain

[rick130]

Dad had VHF radios in all his business vehicles, I think he installed them in about 1971 or '72 ?

Anyway, they were Australian made Pye's and the handpieces looked a squared off or futuristic (for the time) telephone handpiece.

If we were in the city and using the two way you would get some double and triple takes. I loved it being all of about six or seven :D

My first mobile phone was bought in '89 but I wasn't flush enough to buy a mobile mobile, it was an NEC in car jobbie.
My rationale was if I was out of the truck I was too busy to answer the phone :angel:

An old acquaintance and business partner had one of those half a suitcase, tote along jobs like the Ericsson Simon posted above.
He thought he was Joe Cool carrying it everywhere.

I upgraded two years later to the first of the Motorola Micro TAC's, the very first flip phone.
Damn, didn't I think I was cool then :lol2:

As Mike said, how times have changed.

[Larry]

...........I was curious as to whether anyone knows the phone I'm talking about?

If is a white handset whith a key in the side, it is one of the original 007 car phones (NEC120). The next model had a black handset (NEC180) & the transceiver was about half the size of the 120.
When the analogue cellular system started in 1987, that model handset (I have one somewhere :rolleyes:) was very similar with a few more features. The 007 network was closed in 1990.

I worked for Telecom/Telstra fitting these & later model hand free kits from 1987 till 2006. I'll dig out the old handset & post a pic.:D

[Utemad]

Dad had one or two of those Walkabout phones. Plus a home basestation so when you were at home call costs were standard fixed line prices. If you left your home you had to be near a Walkabout post/sign and even then you had to log on to that particular post/sign which meant you couldn't move around freely like now.
That's my recollection anyhow.

[tailslide]

It was a long time ago...:o:o:o

I was one of a few radio techs in Telecom that looked after the 007 base stations in Perth. I did have a full set of workshop manuals for the entire system including the original vehicle installed units, however according to SWMBO the space they occupied was more valuable than the manuals. I couldn't argue that I needed them anymore.

In WA the base stations were located at:

Wellington Exchange (City)
Fremantle gain silo (Freo port)
Walliston (Hills, next to the air traffic control radar)
Padbury (northern suburbs back then)
Brunswich Junction (up in the hills we love to call Harvey:twisted::twisted::twisted:.)

I took a "portable" unit to TAFE as part of my "talk" which was an assessment for a unit in my Dip Electronic Engineering course. Another guy who worked for NEC gave a talk on these new "FAX" machines and brought one in... It was all high tech back then.:D:D:D

The novelty of driving a car with a telephone in it was good fun. Especially when you called people from their drive way and asking if you could pop in. Their surprise when you immediately knock on their door after you hang up was priceless.

Cheers
Ron

[pfillery]

It was a long time ago...:o:o:o

I was one of a few radio techs in Telecom that looked after the 007 base stations in Perth. I did have a full set of workshop manuals for the entire system including the original vehicle installed units, however according to SWMBO the space they occupied was more valuable than the manuals. I couldn't argue that I needed them anymore.

In WA the base stations were located at:

Wellington Exchange (City)
Fremantle gain silo (Freo port)
Walliston (Hills, next to the air traffic control radar)
Padbury (northern suburbs back then)
Brunswich Junction (up in the hills we love to call Harvey:twisted::twisted::twisted:.)

I took a "portable" unit to TAFE as part of my "talk" which was an assessment for a unit in my Dip Electronic Engineering course. Another guy who worked for NEC gave a talk on these new "FAX" machines and brought one in... It was all high tech back then.:D:D:D

The novelty of driving a car with a telephone in it was good fun. Especially when you called people from their drive way and asking if you could pop in. Their surprise when you immediately knock on their door after you hang up was priceless.

Cheers
Ron

So do you think that a complete portable one in near mint condition and still working (exception being that the battery pack is long overdue for retirement) would be in any way collectable? Don't get me wrong, I'm not keen to get rid of it because I need space, just idle curiousity having seen very little information on them anywhere. If there isn't one of these in a museum somewhere there should be.

[clubagreenie]

Dad had VHF radios in all his business vehicles, I think he installed them in about 1971 or '72 ?

Anyway, they were Australian made Pye's and the handpieces looked a squared off or futuristic (for the time) telephone handpiece.

As Mike said, how times have changed.

I remember the Pye's. My dad worked for the local council and a couple of the new units every year would make their way home for our and a friends vehicles for the weekend trips. Massive units with a black telephone handpiece, coiled cord and a hole drilled in the back about where your thumb would be for the push to talk button.

The more things change the more they stay the same...

[rick130]

I remember the Pye's. My dad worked for the local council and a couple of the new units every year would make their way home for our and a friends vehicles for the weekend trips. Massive units with a black telephone handpiece, coiled cord and a hole drilled in the back about where your thumb would be for the push to talk button.

The more things change the more they stay the same...

They sound older again :o

Dad's were a grey colour with a red switch on the side of the handpiece.
Philips took them over not long after and they went to conventional mics, but at the time the techs reckoned the older crystal sets were more robust ?

I think I still have a couple stashed in the shed.
Why, I have no idea......

[awabbit6]

I have what I believe is the first model of "mobile" phone sold in Australia. I would say it is more of a portable car phone the size and weight of a briefcase full of pavers. I stumbled upon it in my shed a few weeks back and have unsuccessfully tried to google information on it. Can't even find a picture on the web.

They were affectionately known as a 007 unit as far as I know and were owned by Telstra (then telecom) as they cost thousands of dollars, and rented to users in the early to mid 80's, before analogue bricks were even thought of. They can't even tell me anything. Is anyone familiar with these or used them when they were out? I'll post a pic for interests sake when I get a chance. Unbelievably this one still works when a bit of 12v power is applied. Won't find a network since this is long gone. From the little info that I have, most of them were taken back by telecom and scrapped in the late 80's, some were modified by ham radio gurus as radio receivers, but I'd imagine it is raer to find something that google can't explain (seems that if it isn't on google it doesn't exist).

I was curious as to whether anyone knows the phone I'm talking about?

Why don't you give the Telstra Museum at Clayfield a visit or call?
Telstra Museum Brisbane (http://www.brisbanelivingheritage.org/01_cms/details.asp?ID=430)

They should be able to help you.

[fraser130]

I had a philips(I think) one, it was the size of 3 house bricks stacked on each other, when I pulled it apart it was a normal carphone and 2 6V SLA cells in a plastic case!
It was fantastic when a mate and myself did a trip up through broken hill/ coober pedy as the mobile rates to Melbourne were cheaper than STD at the time.


Fraser

[Davehoos]

I had a testra motorolla bag phone.from mid/late 80's
it had a 12V lead acid batery and an antenea amplifier.
it was used up till the end of the system.
black bag with a flap that had to be opened.

it was cheeper to use than landline as i didnt make many calls.
line rental was almost nothing.

often the cell tower of mittagong would show up on the bill when used north of newcastle.

this would change the bill as they measured prices in KM radius.
i have to point out that the previous call within minutes was north of newcastle.

was the type of phone blamed for setting off airbags when used in car.

[Sleepy]

Ahh, the days of tuning in to the appropriate VHF freq and listening in to the whole conversation :angel:. I know of someone who used to do that as a teenager :whistling:

[pfillery]

As an ex self employed mobile phone tech my favourite trick was buying all the old analogues from the digital dealers (they would trade them in to get people onto the new system) and then putting them back into circulation!

[clubagreenie]

I wanted to get a old grey Motorola brick and fit the guts of a digital into it.

[werdan]

I wanted to get a old grey Motorola brick and fit the guts of a digital into it.

Something like this?

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/07/601.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/07/602.jpg

[B92 8NW]

Something like this?





That's GSM and all...!! bung your SIM in and, get a W124 Merc and you're all set to be a 1990 millionaire:D

[clubagreenie]

Yes that or the even more generic late 80's one I remember was slightly different.

[scanfor]

We had a 007 phone in the club car of the Spirit of (slow) Progress in about 1987. It worked from Sydney Terminal to around Campbelltown and again coming into Melbourne. It was quite a novelty to call someone from the train.

[Bigbjorn]

When I first worked at Social Security as a field officer in Benefits Control, any client found to have a mobile 'phone or answering machine was considered to be running a business as these gadgets were so expensive you would not have one for any other reason. The client could expect a visit from a fieldie for a please explain.

My current mobile 'phone cost $9.98 from a Best Buy in Los Angeles.