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The Documentary: Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone

Controlled and Connected: 50 years of the cell phone

17/06/2023 GMT

Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone

How has the cell phone revolutionised our lives since the first call in 1973?

Fifty years on from the first mobile phone call, this programme examines how the device has revolutionised the way we lives our lives. It was 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher made the first mobile phone call to his rival at Bell Labs. The prototype weighed 2 kilograms and measured 23 by 13 by 4.5 centimetres. It offered a talk time of just 30 mins and took 10 hours to recharge.

Fast forward five decades and checking the phone is the first thing many people do when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they do when they go to bed. Our relationship with our mobile phones affects everything we do. 

We look at how the phone has evolved in different parts of the world, how it has affected our attention spans, our ability to communicate - and even our sex lives. What have we gained and what have we lost from our relationship with this small device which has gone from being a phone to a mini computer in all our pockets?

Producer: Ashley Byrne
A Made in Manchester production for the BBC World Service

(Photo: Attendees hold up mobile phones as Kali Uchis performs during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Indio, California, 23 April 2023. Credit: Caroline Brehman/EPA)

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