Wireless, telephone and microchip technology came together in the mid 1980s to make personal radiotelephones technical reality.
The cord was cut, people were now contactable anywhere. Soon people could personalise their phones, even down to the fascia and ring tone - and start to access a whole spectrum of new services.
Affordability was the last piece in the puzzle - extending mobiles to every pocket and age range to complete a minor social revolution.
The first mobile phones looked like bricks and mainly sold to Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals - the 'yuppies' of the mid eighties who needed to be constantly in touch - or perhaps prentend they wanted to be.
The arrival of mobiles has brought telephone conversations into a range of different settings and situations - not always happily.
People can and do make and receive ...
There have also been fears about the amount of microwave radiation emitted, both by the mobiles themselves and their transmitters.
So are mobile phones safe?
Nobody ...
Most mobile phones in use today will do far more than users realise. The ingenuity of mobile phone makers has packed handsets with a range of applications and features to be discovered.