3. Orbitel 901
The Orbitel 901 might look like a landline phone, but it was the world’s first GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone. While cell phones were birthed in the United States, European telecommunications companies were the first to move away from analog systems and invest in digital cellular technology.
A British company, Orbitel, worked with Racal and Plessey to develop the Orbitel 901.
Due to the cumbersome nature of the Orbitel 901, it wasn’t very popular, but it opened the door for later GSM models. The Orbitel was the first phone that the UK’s first GSM provider, Vodaphone, offered.
4. Motorola International 3200
Although British company Orbitel beat Motorola to produce the world’s first digital phone, the Motorola International 3200 was the first digital hand-held mobile phone. The International 3200 was designed to replace original analog cell technology developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and first commercially available in 1983.
While mobile phones were becoming more compact, because of the new GSM technology, the Motorola International 3200 looked like the earlier brick phones, but it wasn’t as heavy or quite as large.
It took five hours to charge the Motorola International 3200 and it could last in stand-by for eight hours or 30 minutes to an hour of continuous talk time.
