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Martin Cooper, known as the father of cellphones, was the person who made the first call through a portable cellphone on April 3, 1973 on the streets of New York, United States. He did it at Motorola.
Before reaching the historic moment, it's a good idea to step back a little. Cooper, who was born in Chicago on December 26, 1928, joined Motorola in 1954 as a senior development engineer at the mobile equipment division.
In the early 1970s, Cooper had become general manager of Motorola's Communications Systems Division. This is where he and his team gave birth to the first portable cellular phone. Cooper was asked to be the first person to make a call through the device.
Accompanied by John Francis Mitchell, who was then boss of Motorola's portable communications product, Cooper demonstrated the ability of the portable device to make cellular calls.
Cooper first did it in front of the media and people passing by near the New York Hilton, ahead of the official press conference at the hotel. The first "Halo-halo" via cellphone in this public place was done by Cooper with the DynaTAC prototype.
After that historic moment Cooper and his team still have a pile of challenges in the product commercialization effort, which of course is closely related to the network infrastructure of its time. However, it is undeniable that the moment Cooper made the first call via a portable cellphone right 46 years ago that was so significant that it started the coming of a new era.
The "hello-hello" activity of using cellphones is now commonplace. Well, right today at 46 years ago, that activity just happened for the first time.