Telstra's first mobile phone launched when it was known as Telecom 30 years ago. Telstra's first mobile phone launched when it was known as Telecom 30 years ago.
Australians are so dependent on their mobile phones that many of us feel disconnected with the world when we accidentally leave it at home.
Sure, our phone may have woken us up in the morning with a built-in alarm, but we spend the rest of the day missing out on Twitter updates, a Facebook fix, and possibly even forgetting a lunch date without our phone calendars.
Heck, some of us may even have online Scrabble withdrawals and feel anguish when we have to take a break from throwing animated birds at animated pigs.
Mobile phones play such a huge part in our day-to-day lives that advancements in app technology are taken, largely, for granted.
Rewind to 1981 however, and things were very different.
Car phones that resembled bricks - both in weight and size - were breaking ground, so to speak. For then 21-year-old graduate engineer Mike Wright it was exciting.
"To me it was the most modern technology you could get your hands on," says Wright, now 51 and Telstra's executive director of networks and access technologies.
"When I first got to use the network I rang a friend, it was his birthday, and I spent the whole time convincing him I was actually on a car phone. It was such a radical concept. Nobody could get their mind around that you could actually make a phone call from a car ... it was a big step forward in technology."
Thirty years ago this month, the very first phone call was made on Australia's first public mobile network, built by Telecom and then Telstra. That call was made on a car phone system, which weighed 14kg and had a 45cm handset (pictures).
"The phone itself cost in those days $5000, which is about the equivalent of $17,000 today," Wright said.
"It was about the price of a new Commodore ... so they really were a high-end, sophisticated if you like, product."
In the beginning, coverage was only available in the greater Melbourne area, Telstra says. Today, the Next G network spans more than 2.1 million square kilometres. Mobiles now are also incredibly light, with the average one weighing just 200 grams.
They're also much more intelligent. In 1981, mobile phones stored just 16 numbers and were only installed in cars. As an extra feature, owners could be alerted to an incoming call by the car horn or flashing headlights.
"Back in 1981 I never imagined there would be more mobile devices in Australia than people, and that they could be used to watch live TV, someday feature 3D content and become a critical way to how we connect," says Wright.
During those early years, Wright was working for Telecom in Brisbane and oversaw the installation of the first mobile phone switch in the city.
"We called the first Telstra network the `007 network' because that was the number range it used and, while in today's terms it was more like a `Zero-G' network, it was the foundation of Australia's modern mobile phone industry.
"In just 30 years we're now building a 4G network - that's five generations of mobile evolution so far in my career."
Australians are so attached to their mobiles that for many the devices are almost a security blanket. According to a Telstra consumer survey, 50 per cent of Australians feel panic-stricken within five minutes when they think they've lost their mobile phone, while 25 per cent admit to feeling panic after less than a minute.
The telco has also found that nearly one third of Gen Y-ers check their mobile phones in the mornings before they use the bathroom, have breakfast, or go online. And, the survey showed that nearly half of Australians rank mobile phones as the innovation they value the most, over laptop computers and microwaves.
It also appears our obsession with mobiles will grow, with Wright predicting a future with even more interaction.
"We're going to see increasing demand for data," he says, "... and that demand for smartphones and tablets has been insatiable, so for the short-to medium-term we're going to see the growth of network traffic continue to explode and then beyond that we really see people having multiple devices connected.
"You already see it now where you can buy a GPS unit that's got real-time traffic; you can get a book reader and download a book.
"Beyond that we really will start to see photo frames that you can real-time get photos on, cameras that you don't have to go rummaging through the drawer trying to find the cable because they will upload with a chip in them automatically ... your car will become connected and the end game is probably your dog collar with a chip in it, so you know where Fido is."
Mobile technology in Australia
Coverage - In August 1981, the mobile network was limited to greater Melbourne (the service launched in Sydney in December 1981, Brisbane in 1983 and reached all Australian capital cities by 1985).
Today, the Telstra mobile network covers 2.1 million sq km and reaches more than 99 per cent of the population.
Customers - Less than 1300 phones connected to the 007 network in its first year. Today, more than 11 million services are on Telstra's Mobile Network, and in total 22 million people have mobile phone service in Australia.
Texts - In 1981, no one had heard of texting. In 2009/10, Telstra customers sent 9.4 billion text messages.
Mobile internet - Using a mobile network for internet access had not been imagined back in 1981. Now, Telstra's mobile broadband network supports more than 10 million internet capable phones, tablets and data cards.
Base stations - Thirty years ago, there were three base stations in Melbourne and five base stations in Sydney. Today, there are more than 7400 base stations across Australia.
Costs - To buy a mobile phone it cost $4995 plus a $350 installation fee in 1981, compared to today where a customer can buy a phone from Telstra for less than $35 outright.
AAP