Mobira
Senator Combi

Mobira Oy was established as a joint venture between Salora Oy and Nokia in February 1979 when the two companies merged their radio-telephone operations. Mobira was based in the Finnish town of Salo. Nokia eventually took full control of Salora Oy in 1984 (and Mobira) laying the foundations for Nokia's future mobile phone business. The company’s first mobile phone was the Mobira Senator which is widely credited as one of the first handheld mobile phones available commercially. Its release marked a significant milestone in the history of mobile communication technology. The Mobira Senator Combi was an upgraded version of this product and built on Mobira’s pioneering efforts in mobile communication technology. Like its predecessor, the Senator Combi operated on Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) 450MHz analogue networks, one of Europe's earliest cellular network technologies. A notable feature of the Mobira Senator Combi was its ability to be used as both a mobile phone and a car phone. This offered users greater flexibility in how they used the device, allowing them to make calls both on the go and from the comfort of their vehicle. The phone was described as having a “briefcase-like form factor”. The head unit that was used in a vehicle could be slotted into the “carry case” and became portable. While the device is primitive by today's standards, the Mobira Senator Combi played an important role in shaping the trajectory of mobile technology and paving the way for the modern mobile phones that we rely on today.