The first cell phone call. The first mobile phone call took place on April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher, placed the call on a prototype device. After dialling the phone number, his device connected to a base station, which then connected to the landline system of AT&T. Cooper called his biggest rival at AT&T, Joel Engel. Cooper kept the conversation both brief and modest. He simply told Engel he had made the call from a bona fide mobile phone. From there, Cooper helped Motorola and other companies usher in the age of the mobile phone a few years later.