A witness to history: Remembering India’s first mobile call 25 years ago

Last Friday, 31 July, much of India missed out an important historical moment : commemorating 25 years of the first-ever ‘mobile-to-mobile’ call in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did congratulate the mobile industry on its silver anniversary on that day, but the digital event on Friday did not do enough justice to the socio-cultural importance of the occasion. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) organised a special online event “Desh Ki Digital Udaan” to commemorate the first ever mobile call. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and telecom secretary Anshu Prakash spoke. But not much else happened.

It was not the same 25 years ago. Two politicians – then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and the then Union Communications Minister Sukh Ram – were the first to chat on cellphones in India, with hand-held devices. Basu called up Ram on July 31, 1995, from Writer’s Building Calcutta to Sanchar Bhawan New Delhi, to inaugurate India’s first cellular service (on the Modi Telstra network, in Calcutta). Both used Nokia handsets, and the Modi Telstra network was also Nokia engineered.