Last updated on March 25th, 2023
44. The U.S.A. is not the only country that uses 911 as an emergency number. It is also used in Aruba, Belize, Guam, Honduras, Canada, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, and Peru, among others.
45. On December 4, 1958, Queen Elizabeth II made the first-ever long-distance call in the U.K. She made the call without an operator from Bristol to talk to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
46. The rotary phone was the earliest user-controlled telephone to be produced for the mass market. It allowed the caller to dial any number to get in touch with another person or business. The first patent for a rotary dial was granted (November 29, 1892) as U.S. Patent 486,909, but the commonly known form with holes in the finger wheel was not introduced until 1904.
47. The first smartphone was created in 1992 and made available in 1994. It was created by IBM and the model was known as the Simon Personal Communicator.
48. At one point, Nokia was one of the world’s biggest cellphone manufacturers. Their famous ringtone is still recognizable today, although the brand itself was already sold to Foxconn.
49. Although the telephone was invented to make communications easier, it has also become the instrument of choice for criminals and scammers. Some of the most common crimes committed using the telephone include tax scams, grandparent scams, and robocall scams, to name a few.
50. Size is a thing for many phone users due to convenience and portability. However, Zanco decided to take it one step further by introducing the t1. Although fully functional, it stands at just 46.7 mm in height and hardly makes an impression on the scales at just 13 grams. Zanco also created the world’s smallest 3G phone, the t2.
51. The most expensive cellphone number was sold for a whopping $2.7 million. The number was 666-6666. Its area code is unknown.
52. If you think a thousand-dollar price tag for a phone is impressive, wait till you learn how much the most expensive smartphone costs. The Falcon Supernova iPhone 6 – Pink Diamond Edition was introduced in 2004. It is a customized iPhone 6, lavishly covered in 24k gold, and features a rare pink diamond on the back. The platinum-coated phone also has a built-in anti-hacking technology that keeps personal information protected. It cost $48.5 million.
53. Apple’s iPhone may be widely popular but it is not the world’s bestselling phone. That title belongs to the Nokia 1100 which was marketed in 2003. Its main selling point was that it was affordable, paving the way for mobile phones to become the mass product they are today. The 1100 recorded 255 million in worldwide sales.