Sept. 21, 1983, Motorola's ...first commercial portable cellular phone...

[ProfessorGAC]

3. I Saw Some, Too

But, didn't have one. In his briefcase!
Where the heck else could you carry those things? Even a woman carrying a purse would need an awfully big one to carry that thing.
In 1983, how much cell coverage was there? Not a lot, I'd think.
In the early 90s, when we got phones it worked nearly everywhere in the big cities where our North American sites were. So, pretty useful.