1952
The mobile radio-telephone network was opened to the public in Sydney and Melbourne. The first subscribers were high-flying businessman Sir Reg Ansett, an anonymous taxi driver, and "corset king" Bernard Dowd.
The early mobile network had poor coverage, only one operator for 100 customers, and was a party line.
Some mobile users developed a system of codewords to keep their conversations confidential. On the plus side, their numbers were only 1 character and 4 digits long. Picture: File photo
