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2. From Car Phone to Executive Brick

Episode 2 of 5

From carphone to executive brick - how Britain became a world leader in the 1980s in mobile phone technology. From 2011.

Stephen Fry continues to trace the evolution of the mobile phone.

Now he meets the men who brought mobile phones to Britain.

Thanks to Margaret Thatcher opening up the airwaves, Britain became a world leader in mobile phone technology in the 1980s.

Vodafone (short for voice-data-phone) competed fiercely with the BT's mobile baby, Cellnet (short for cellular network), to create the first mobile phone network in the UK, launched to great fanfare on Christmas Day 1985.

Coverage was truly patchy, handsets were seriously hefty and calls cost a fortune, but mobile phones quickly replaced car phones as the ultimate yuppie accessory.

Voicemail, incidentally, was a good excuse to charge customers yet more for a service that was, in reality, rather poor.

Producer: Anna Buckley

First broadcast on 麻豆社 Radio 4 in November 2011.

15 minutes

Last on

Wed 11 Mar 2026 03:30
麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra

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1. Creating the Network

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3. The Accidental Discovery of Text

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Broadcasts

  • Tue 22 Nov 2011 13:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Fri 28 Dec 2012 00:15
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Sun 1 Jul 2018 15:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Mon 2 Jul 2018 03:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 10 Mar 2026 08:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 10 Mar 2026 13:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 10 Mar 2026 19:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 11 Mar 2026 03:30
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra