Although Dr. Martin Cooper from Motorola made the first call using a mobile phone in 1973 , this was not on a cellular mobile phone network as we use today . Martin Cooper , a Motorola researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting , after a long race against Bell Labs for the first portable mobile phone . Using a modern , if somewhat heavy portable handset , Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3 , 1973 to his rival , Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs .