Answer: Did you know that the first call made with a cellular telephone was a prank? In 1973 martin cooper was heading up a team of engineers at Motorola was working to build the world's first cell phone. Once it was ready to be tested he decided to ring a competitor. He called Joel Engel was also trying to build the first portable phone at AT&T. Cooper said that when the call connected, he told Engel he was talking to him on a portable phone there was silence on the other end of the line.