The contacts are for some debug testmode. You can saw the top of the battery case off near the contacts because there's nothing in that part of the battery and you need to short some pins to the antenna/ground. Later flip-phone models can enter testmode with just key presses. You can check signal strength as a number not just a 5 bar meter, maybe listen on some channels, all temporary stuff. Too this day I setup my iPhones to show signal strength in numbers too. The "Made in USA" wasn't just a joke on the sticker, I think (but can't find references online) we really had manufacturing lines in the USA making phones, like chips and soldering all sourced in the country. Moto had old military ties so they liked making things in the country and keeping patent secrets internal. This would've been for those really old analog phones. I would guess into the mid 90's. There's articles online talking about the MotoX ending in 2014 but that was "assembled" not made in USA. Thanks to Covid-19 supply chains (TSMC), political threats and mistrust of foreign chipmakers, the US started talking about chip fabs again around 2022, not just for military.
I worked for a company in 1988 that gave me access to a mobile phone that had a huge battery pack as a separate unit, connected via a curly cable. I was very much amused ringing up the pub I was in to order my drinks! There is no fun in that anymore!
As a service engineer back then the first mobile phone I used was one of the in car type that we built into an old leather briefcase along with a motorbike battery to power it and a speaker fitted to the lid, we all shared it as needed. Then we all got the Motorola bricks and thought we were well off. I don't remember the handsets being quite so expensive but I think the calls and rentals were more expensive. And yes you did have to pay for incoming calls. The reasoning was that the caller didn't know it was a mobile number so was charged the standard trunk rate and the mobile user picked up the remainder of the call cost.
Great video, I remember seeing someone on the train with a brick phone, I had never seen a mobile phone before, it was amazing, I couldn’t stop watching this guy making a phone call while being on a train. It was like science fiction to me! I never would have believed in my lifetime we would all be walking around with sophisticated computer/phones in our pockets and watches that we can make and receive calls on. The future is here! Ps what’s the amstrad?
Ah yes, those brick phones were totally outrageous in the 80s, and I feel whoever had those phones in the house, car or even in their room should bring them back to life. In Birmingham Alabama, we used to have a phone company by the name South Central Bell 🔔 in order to get the phone person to connect with the communications wires.
