The original handheld "brick" phone, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC , came out in 1984. This

The original handheld "brick" phone, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC , came out in 1984. This was the beginning of the period when cellular phones were seen as expensive status symbols and specialist equipment. (In fact the phones were often still carphones and transportables https://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/arcticles/80s_brick_phones.php https://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/arcticles/80s_brick_pho... .) Then in the early '90s, about the time that GSM digital service came in, prices began to drop sharply and wide adoption began. (One sign of the change which got some attention at the time was that the SWP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_(UK) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_(UK) , a somewhat ersatz radical-left UK fringe party, was seen using mobile phones to organise its then very successful steet demos.)