A gift for algebra leads to popularity as he offers to find the best tariff option for newly subscribing friends. Jordan finds a mobile is still useful, however, as break-time is a good opportunity to hook it up to a laptop and send electronic mail to his friends in California. Once she’s mastered steering the 205 with one hand, she can use it on the move. It can even be left in baby’s bedroom while connected to the phone in the kitchen, to check he’s not crying.SchoolboyJordan’s school was forced to ban disruptive mobile phones from the classroom in the late Nineties. Initially sceptical that a product endorsed by rowdy City types and the local plumber could have any attractions for her.

But it’s lightweight, bright yellow, and, after all, it is a telephone. As such, it can be used to order goodies from Fortnum’s and tell the nanny to pick the girls up from school. He must remember not to leave the phone on the front seat.Frightfully busy mumReceived the phone as a present, Christmas ‘95. On the minus side, incidental costs rose when his Range Rover outside his home in Chelsea was twice broken into.

But he could close a deal on the way to the office, impress fellow diners during business lunches, call to mislead his wife about his location and activities at any time or simply pose Often seen pacing around outside pubs talking animatedly. Pricey, very bulky, frequently impossible to understand what was being said and many calls simply cut out. Rabbit, the last of the CT2 companies, collapses28 April ‘94Orange launched with 50 per cent UK population coverageThe yuppieCame by his first mobile phone in the mid-Eighties. This new and potentially vast market sector quickly becomes known in the industry as LowLife.1993Mercury launches One-2-One. They are not seen by the public as properly mobile, and the operators find business is difficult.1990UK mobile subscriber figures reach 1m for the first time.1992Cellnet and Vodafone, now well established, attempt to head off the imminent threat of new competition offering domestic tariffs by launching their own – LowCall and Lifetime. Cellnet launched; 25,000 subscribers in the first year.1986The UK becomes the EC’s largest cellular market.January ‘89Government announces plans for new mass market mobile phone service.1989The Government issues licenses for the CT2 system, opening the door to a number of networks (Zonephone, Phonepoint, Callpoint, Rabbit) which only allow calls within range of a CT2 base station. Until it goes on-line three years later, there is little consumer choice: BT’s “System 4″ Radiophone service allows 14,000 customers access to mobile telecommunications but handsets alone cost up to pounds 10,000.January ‘85Vodaphone officially launched.

At the top end the monthly fee is pounds 12.50 with pounds 17.50 worth of free calls and charges thereafter of 20p per minute peak and 10p off-peak.THE MARCH OF THE MOBILEDecember ‘82First UK cellular radio licence is awarded (to Racal-Vodafone). Thereafter they pay 30p per minute for peak-rate calls and 10p off-peak. From April it will adopt per-second billing for all digital customers and will introduce extra consumer-oriented tariff packages. The new charges start with a monthly deal under which customers pay pounds 7.50 but are then entitled to pounds 12.50 worth of calls. Cellnet made a pre-tax profit last year of pounds 154.8m on turnover of pounds 682m Cellnet runs an analogue and a digital network It has roaming agreements with some overseas operators. BT would like to buy its partner out but has so far been refused permissionby the Government.

At the top end, the monthly fee of pounds 37.50 includes 100 bundled minutes. Calls thereafter are 20p per minute peak and 10p off-peak, based on per-second billing.CellnetCellnet was launched in 1985 and has about 2.3 million subscribers. It is 60 per cent owned by BT with the remainder held by Securicor. They start with a monthly fee of pounds 22.50 inclusive of 50 minutes of “free” calls. Thereafter the charges are 30p per minute peak and 10p off-peak but calculated on a per-second basis.