The Oldest Mobile Phone

[Lazarus]

Stuck in bed with the lurgy, feeling sorry for myself, so here's a topic for conversation.

Who among us has the oldest working mobile phone still in daily use?

My wife has a Philips C12 of 1999 vintage. It's on its second SIM and fourth Battery, but still works fine. The original PAYG deal included 500 "free" minutes per month to a "Best Friend" subject to a bi-monthly minimum £10 Top-Up.

But we've found it actually gives us those free minutes without a Top-Up at all, strangely.

It wasn't many years earlier in the 1990s that a friend who worked for YTV and I blagged our way into the Annual Toy Trade Exhibition at Harrogate by carting in with us a new-fangled mobile that was the size of a small rucksack and had a separate, similarly sized Battery Pack!

 

[andyxxxx]

My dad still has my old Nokia 8210, I passed it onto him a year or so after receiving it for christmas 1999.

He only uses it maybe once a week but it's still working great. Was on one2one when I had it IIRC, now has a PAYG t-mobile sim in.

It's still pretty damn small compared to some of the smallest ones available today!

P.S. I'm in the same boat, been in bed all week, apart from a few lectures, and my satellite dish is still on my bedroom floor...

 

[Analoguesat]

Blimey the longest we have got out of a mobile is about 4 years. Either the screens go on them / the buttons go wrong after being landed on when I fell off my bike on ice (!) / they get lost or stolen / they get run over by a car (no DONT ask....)

 

[HPsauce]

I have a Nokia 3110 (NHE-8) from 1997. Only GSM900.
It came with the integrated handsfree car kit built into a car I bought secondhand a few years ago.
Still on the original battery and works fine both in the car and standalone.

 

[I.LuV.ManUTd!]

Blimey the longest we have got out of a mobile is about 4 years. Either the screens go on them / the buttons go wrong after being landed on when I fell off my bike on ice (!) / they get lost or stolen / they get run over by a car (no DONT ask....)

How did that happen?

 

[Channel Hopper]

I have a Nortel M900 in the shed that, apart from a distinct lack of range, still works. It came courtesy of the original Mercury 1-2-1- tariff - free for landline calls within M25 users after 7pm - but I can't really recall when I got it (1995, or possibly 1996).

 

[rolfw]

My mum is still using my old Nokia 6210, circa 1999, with an Orange PAYG package. As it is the old style package, as long as she makes and receives one call every quarter, she keeps her balance, so I've only ever put £40 worth in.

 

[2cvbloke]

Motorola MR601 on Orange, I have older phones, but this one gets the most use (even though I hate having a mobile on me, don't like being communicated with when I don't feel like talking!!!), mid 90's I think...

(shown here while testing the Orange/T-Mobile crossover agreement thing, allowing customers from either side to roam on either network)