<P> Prior to 1973 , mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles . Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone . On April 3 , 1973 , Martin Cooper , a Motorola researcher and executive , made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment , placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs , his rival . The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 1.1 kg ( 2.42 lb ) and measured 23 cm long , 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide . The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge . </P>
when was the first commercial cell phone released
1973