The History of the Car Phone Goes Way Further Than You Think

John Summers • Contributor

Oct 17, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

For most of us, the term car phone instantly brings to mind slick 1980s business types barking orders from their BMWs, But here's the shocker: the car phone actually dates back to the 1940s.

In 1946, Bell Labs launched the first-ever "mobile telephone service" in St. Louis, Missouri. The setup weighed about 80 pounds and had just three channels for the entire city. (Imagine waiting for someone to finish their call before you could even dial.) A few months later, Motorola joined the party in Chicago, powering Illinois Bell's car radiotelephone network. It worked - barely - and immediately maxed out capacity.

By the late '50s, West Germany had its own version called A-Netz, which later evolved into B-Netz in 1972 - the first to allow direct dialing, though you still needed to know the other driver's location. Fast forward to the '80s, and car phones finally became sleek, portable, and absurdly expensive. They were the ultimate status symbol - before the portable cellphone came along and made them obsolete almost overnight.

Still, there's something weirdly romantic about that bulky, button-covered handset mounted inside a car - a symbol of a time when technology felt exciting, exclusive, and just a little impractical.

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The earliest version of a mobile phone was first created in 1946, it was called a “mobile radiophone service.”

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Forget about the phone for a second, can we talk about that headroom?

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Woman uncomfortably surrounded by spectators, c. 1948.

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DeSoto with an early car phone, c. 1950s.

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In-car telephone, c. 1950.

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Man with cigar and car phone, c. 1953.

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Gentleman calls home, c. 1956.

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Reginald Blevins, the Postmaster General of the UK, inaugurates the first radio telephone service for motorists, 1959.

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Early 1960s Mercedes with a car phone.

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Portrait of an old lady and car telephone, c. 1960.

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Farrah Fawcett in a customized Corvette, c. 1970.

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Investment banker Michael Yancey on a cell phone in his Porsche in 1987.

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Geisha with car phone, c. 1988.

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