Back in the mid‑80s, carrying a cellphone was basically a DIY workout. Quebec electrician Pierre Robitaille once hauled around what looked like a suitcase and admitted, “it wasn’t very heavy but it was embarrassing, it was big”. Imagine trying to discreetly chat on that thing—people probably thought you were planning a heist, not calling your mom. At least when it dropped calls, you could blame the rogue shoulder‑strap choreography.
The inaugural Canadian cellphone call on July 1, 1985 was not exactly sleek—it involved a 10‑pound device operated by then‑Toronto mayor Art Eggleton, while his Montreal counterpart Jean Drapeau listened in. Picture that: two mayors flexing their mobile muscles on Canada Day, looking like undercover security guards launching an alien spaceship. Also, the network could handle exactly 100 calls a day then—now it’s over 100 million. Clearly, we went from “can I call you back?” to “can you not overhear me from across the room?”
First adopters paid through the nose: installs cost up to $3,500, monthly bills were thousands, and one electrician dropped nearly $4,800 on his Novatel system. That’s like paying full price for a vintage sports car just to say “can you pick up eggs?” And those early phones had power equivalent to a flashlight—three watts, people—so if your car battery died mid‑text (okay, call), you were stranded… with a $5,000 doorstop.
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