A suburban Chicago insurance agent won a contest 40 years ago to make the first commercial cellular call. He’s still on the phone
There are more than 300 million cellphone customers in the U.S.
David Meilahn, a suburban Chicago insurance agent, was the first.
In a Soldier Field parking lot, 40 years ago Friday, Meilahn bested 13 other early adopters in a promotional race to see who could activate their preinstalled car phones and make the first commercial cellular call in the U.S.
Meilahn won a check to cover the car phone’s cost and a footnote in the history of the transformational wireless telecommunications industry.
There was even a “Jeopardy” answer about his accomplishment — you can look it up on your smartphone.
“This was part of my 15 minutes of fame,” said Meilahn, 74. “Everybody thought it was really a neat novelty that I became the first cellular phone call. But it wasn’t as important the first year as it is today. It’s just part of every person’s life.”
In days of
