Mobile Phones Quotes

“We are loved way more by some of the people who have not contacted us in the last twelve or so months than we are loved by some of those who contact us every twelve or so days … or hours.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We are living in a generation where people ‘in love’ are free to touch each other’s private parts but are not allowed to touch each other’s phones because they are private.”
― Robert Mugabe

“A smartphone is an addictive device which traps a soul into a lifeless planet full of lives”
― Munia Khan

“Anybody have plans to stare at their phone somewhere exciting this weekend?”
― Nitya Prakash

“I thought the invention of mobile phone was to save our time & money, be we are doing exactly the opposite.”
― Srinivas Shenoy

“Mobile phones ... they're not for communicating, they're for broadcasting. Broadcasting The Show Of Me.”
― Adam Nevill, Last Days

“Computers and mobile devices are becoming known for their inherent insecurities and the ability to damage the long term health of the users.”
― Steven Magee

“Smartphone is definitely smarter than us to be able to keep us addicted to it.”
― Munia Khan

“There is already enough chattering nonsense on the ground. Do we really need aviaries in pressurised tin cans at 30,000 feet as well ?”
― Alex Morritt, Impromptu Scribe

“Once as Nadia sat on the steps of a building reading the news on her phone across the street from a detachment of troops and a tank, she thought she saw online a photograph of herself sitting on the steps of a building reading the news on her phone across the street from a detachment of troops and a tank, and she was startled and wondered how this could be. How she could both read this news and be this news. And how the newspaper could have published this instantaneously, and she looked about for a photographer, and she had the bizarre feeling of time bending all around her, as though she were from the past reading about the future, or from the future reading about the past.”
― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

“In their phones were antennas, and these antennas sniffed out an invisible world, as if by magic, a world that was all around them, and also nowhere, transporting them to places distant and near, and to places that had never been and would never be.”
― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

“The Stack terraforms the host planet by drinking and vomiting its elemental juices and spitting up mobile phones.”
― Benjamin H Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty

“An entire planet pretending to be uncomfortable with the humanitarian crisis while engrossed in distractions on their mobile screens. Humanity ignoring their inevitable existential crisis.”
― Gayendra Abeywardane, Crocodile Chamber

“A proper table setting provides no place for a cell phone.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, Listen to Your Conscience: That's Why You Have One

“...a fissure appeared. Splinters of plastic broke away around it, and the fissure widened, radiating further fractures.

When the first leg broke out, Simon tried to shriek.”
― L. Ashley Straker, Infected Connection

“Every scrape, site, range and page; every game, download, hack, song, movie and virrie on the Web. Everything on your phone. Everything on your 'puta. Even the content directories of your cupboards. Almost every system has been brute-forced; passwords cracked, firewalls breached. Nothing has been left untouched.”
― L. Ashley Straker, Connected Infection

“Wireless coverage can even be found on the summit of Mount Everest, the highest-elevated and arguably one of the most hostile surfaces on the planet. Wherever there is a wireless connection, you will inevitably find someone using a mobile device.”
― Karen L. Yacobucci, Video Marketing for Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians (Volume 33)

“Edison and a few others had been working on improvements to Alexander Bell’s initial “telephone” device. Tesla was attempting to make the devices work without the aid of any wires at all. One didn’t have to be much of a scientist to know that this was absurd. Even if by some miracle Tesla managed to make them function, who in the world would have any use for them?”
― Graham Moore, The Last Days of Night

“When your technology is so out of date the Romans are ahead of you, it might be time for you to get a new phone. ~Either Side of Midnight~”
― Benjamin Stevenson

“The first time someone suggested that I write about my adventures was when I had just arrived in Lebanon. He looked at me with sincere curiosity, puzzled too. We were seated in a large kitchen at a friend’s house, having lunch. It was a beautiful yellow brick house, on top of a hill, very bright, the garden in bloom, wonderful colors and my story of poverty and gloom in Kosovo couldn’t be a greater contrast. We drank lovely Lebanese white wine, ate warm flatbread with labneh, foul, sujuk, and plenty of other mezze dishes.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“The mobile industry quickly developed, and lawyers, investment bankers, consultants and contractors offered their services. The feeling of ownership of the projects and the effort of getting networks up and running within the shortest possible time span was gigantic. Engineers slept in their cars to make sure that they could start early mornings, ‘war rooms’ were kitted out with huge maps, project timelines, pictures and milestone markers. Contests ongoing between different teams in the specific country regions where we were building. Employing a thousand people in no time and generating work for tenfold that number; network and other suppliers, construction companies, distributors, retailers and other often highly skilled third parties.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“One point seemed to be very dear to the proud Minister; the company name had to be UMC, Ukrainian Mobile Communications. We agreed, understanding that this project was his baby and that he, too, was taking an enormous risk in the very uncertain and rapidly changing political environment. This was the still the USSR, where for obvious reasons, no normal citizen was allowed to have a phone. The waiting list was about 17 years for Communist Party members with a clear need. Fixed line penetration stood at about 7 or 8 percent.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“Shortly after that nerve-racking event, Minister Delikatny, whom I really liked, did indeed disappear, but at least UMC was ‘in formation’. UMC would make a real and huge change in this highly secretive world. I still had a long to-do list. First, I needed to open a bank account to transfer the share capital. There was only one, very new, international bank, the First Ukrainian bank, a subsidiary of a Dutch bank that I hoped would be able to help. No such luck, there were no transfer processes in place yet. I decided to simply put the required USD 10,000 in my shoes next time I would travel. Fifty notes in each shoe was surely not a problem. I delivered the money to the bank on my next stay in Kiev and we were up and running. We could officially start building now.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“It was well after midnight when I put the thick document called ‘Invitation to Tender for a concession to provide GSM services in Hungary’ on my bedside cabinet. The document had been reissued on October 15, 1992. I had quickly scanned, and hopefully absorbed, the main points. The tender was organized as a beauty contest and the winning consortia would be allowed to participate in the auction to be held next year. There were two concessions up for grabs, one that would surely go to the existing NMT operator Westel (US West & Bell Atlantic) and one for a new party. It was shut eye time now, I was tired. The flight to Budapest would leave early in the morning, so I had only a few hours to rest.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“KPN had set up an office in most countries of the former Eastern bloc. The office in Budapest was in the Buda hills, an area with lush lanes with beautiful large nineteenth-century villas. The minute I saw it, I baptized KPN’s villa ‘Villekulla’, after Pippi Longstocking’s house. I could just picture Pippi leaving the place with Mr. Nilsson on her shoulder, leading her speckled mare down the lane, looking for new adventures. The actual offices were downstairs, with double doors opening out into a large garden with roses and big trees.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“We were ready to submit the bid documents in sealed folders on May 28, at 10 am, as stipulated by the Ministry. Luckily, someone did a final check of our output against the ‘Invitation to Tender’ once more, just to make absolutely sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. He discovered at the last minute that the bid team leader had to initial all pages by hand. Since systems like DocuSign didn’t exist yet, Richard and I spent the whole evening and night signing pages, with me turning the pages and Richard initialing each one. There were thousands. Richard’s arm was hurting badly at the end of it, but we got it done in time. We put the folders in sealed envelopes and delivered it all by hand. One minute late and we would have missed an opportunity that we had already spent over USD 10 million on.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“The former banker helped us with the financial plans, figuring out how much we could afford to bid in the auction. We concluded that we could certainly bid USD 45 million for a 20-year license in Hungary. Swedish Telecom was very confident, their CEO had said in radio interviews that he thought that 1 in 4 people would have a mobile phone by the year 2000. This was overly optimistic according to the other consortium partners. They were more conservative and we had difficulty persuading them to put up more money”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“Nokia and our team worked day and night; sites were selected, even churches, masts were built, and equipment was installed. We were heading for launch. Dead tired but things moved forward. Richard’s wife was screaming and shouting on the phone, where the f… he was, she would divorce him. It was early evening after our Christmas party, the offices deserted. Very cold outside, big snowflakes falling. Richard and I were looking out of the big 6th floor windows of our new office in Pest. Silently we stood together. We had grown close that year. He said sadly, ‘You see those people there Ineke? They have a life and we will improve it when they get cheap mobile phones. And we?’ I said nothing, I just watched people pass by and felt like him; lone wolves we had become.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?

“It was a late Friday afternoon when old Mr. Bartha came to my office. I offered him a drink and gave him a quick rundown of what we needed. I had prepared a Memorandum of Understanding and handed it over to him. When he saw the daily fee, which was market rate, but lowish, he suddenly became very emotional and cried. He said he couldn’t accept. His company was almost bankrupt, hundreds of families with children were very poor now. Couldn’t I raise the fee a little bit, he asked, shyly. I looked at him and saw him struggling, my heart broke, this old man was trying to help so many people. I thought about my budget and about what I would have to explain to the new CEO, Christian, a nice and competent Norwegian, and decided instantly to raise the fee. And as for my budget and explaining it to Christian, I’d cross that bridge when I get to it, I thought silently.”
― Ineke Botter, Your phone, my life: Or, how did that phone land in your hand?