October 13, 1983: The First Commercial Cell Phone Call

On October 13, 1983, Ameritech provided residents of Chicago with advanced mobile phone service (AMPS), a 1G telephony standard which operates in the 800 – 900 MHz frequency band. Bob Barnett, an Ameritech executive, placed the first commercial cell phone call while sitting in a parked car near Solider Field. Fittingly, Barnett called the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, a founding father of the telephone. According to Fortune magazine's Stephanie N. Mehta, "The sound quality wasn't pristine, and the conversation wasn't especially scintillating". Ten years later, less than 10 million Americans used cell phones. By the year 2003, however, there were 159 million cell phone subscribers in the United States.