After yesterday’s news that 2 billion people now use GSM mobile phones, it seems timely to look back at the history of GSM and see what the first generation looked like.

Back in 1991, the Motorola 1000 ‘Autotelefon’ was the digital phone of choice.

Called a ‘transportable’, because, well, you couldn’t get away with calling it ‘mobile’, the Motorola 1000 is bigger than most of today’s base stations!

More surprising, and a real testament to the success of the original GSM specification, the Motorola 1000 will still work, unchanged, on today’s vastly-different GSM networks.

For those nostalgia nuts out there, check out RetroBrick’s complete range of ageing retro mobile bricks. We’ve come a long way in 15 years!