We have a 1992 Motorola Personal Mobile Telephone in our Technology through Time Collection.
It was not until 1992 that mobile phones were no longer only allowed for commercial use. Digital consumer phones with low costs were made possible by mass manufacture. It was Motorola’s first attempt at a consumer phone for the UK market. It was marketed as an ’emergency phone’, and did not have a screen.
About 11 million people used mobile devices in 1990; by 2020, this had increased dramatically to about 2.5 billion users worldwide. There was a major evolution in the shape and size of phones, with early "brick" phones gradually becoming something much more portable.