19831776 Club
Chicago gets the first cell phone call anyone can buy
Bob Barnett dials Germany from a convertible at Soldier Field, and the mobile phone era opens for business.
Until 1983, calling someone in America meant picking up a phone wired to a wall. On October 13, 1983, Ameritech Mobile Communications switched on the first commercial cellular network in the United States, covering roughly 2,500 square miles of the Chicago area from Lake Forest to Geneva to Beecher. Company president Bob Barnett placed the inaugural call from a Chrysler convertible parked at Soldier Field, reaching Joachim Bell, grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, in Germany. Ameritech expected 5,000 customers by year's end and 12,000 within the first year…
