The 30th anniversary of the launch of New Zealand's first mobile phone network will be celebrated next weekend by engineers who are confident that the benefits of their work have far outweighed any downsides.

The first mobile phones only had a battery life of about 20 minutes, so the initial expectation was that they would largely be confined to cars, from which they could be powered, recalls pioneer Graham Warren.

However, he notes there was also a "transportable" phone that came with a battery weighing two kilograms along with its own briefcase to carry the set-up.

SUPPLIED A collection of mobiles from the 1980s and '90s belonging to Spark staffer Mike McGrath.

The first mobiles were also expensive, costing about $6000, though that wasn't enough to stop Telecom signing up 1000 subscribers in its first month and having to establish a wait list.

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Spark Telecom's first mobile phone advertisement.

Warren helped prepare the business case that the Post Office put to the Cabinet in 1984 for the mobile network and is organising a get together in Wellington of about 75 people who were involved in its early days.

The network was launched by Telecom – now Spark – in August 1987, just four months it was split off from the Post Office.

Warren said that even then there was a sense among the engineers that it was the start of something big.

TOM PULLAR-STRECKER/STUFF Spark engineer John Kliffen helped work out where to place Telecom's cell sites.

Prior to the launch, the only way of staying in touch when on the move was mobile radio or paging.

Commerce Commission figures show there are now more than 5.8 million mobile connections in New Zealand – more than the number of people.

On average we spend two hours making calls on mobiles each month, and mobile internet usage is soaring at the rate of 80 per cent a year.

Texting has been in decline since 2012 but we still send about 11 billion of them each year.

"I don't think anyone ever dreamed that we would end up with what we have got now. Back then we were thinking about 10 to 15 per cent market penetration," Warren said.

Another surprise was that smartphones had become devices that "pretty much replace 25 things – your torch, your camera, your radio – and occasionally you make phone calls with it as well".

"It's been 'the stone age' to jumbo jets all within a 30-year period."

Mobile innovation was far from over, Warren believed, with biometrics, augmented reality and the internet-of-things the big developments in sight.

Loss of privacy was the biggest cause for concern, he said, but that was more to do with the internet, he said.

"People can be found anywhere. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think that's more of a benefit than a curse."

Engineer John Kliffen helped find sites for the first cellphone towers and still works for Spark after a stint with technology supplier Ericsson.

"At the time we were pioneering. We were helping create a whole new way of working."

He was one of the first to get a cellphone, which came with a shoulder pack. "My girlfriend at the time was impressed," he laughs.

It was not until the early '90s that mobiles could be used for data and email, and then texting took off, before smartphones became commonplace.

The way smartphones had enabled the internet to come to phones and become "10 devices in one" could not have been predicted, he agreed.

Kliffen acknowledged mobiles had contributed to the difficulties people sometimes faced managing a work/life balance.

"Your phone number is very strongly linked to 'you' and when do you switch the thing off?

"But that does mean everyone is contactable if they want to be."

5G mobile technology – which is believed to be at least a few years away – would bring another wave of innovation, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications that could help prevent traffic accidents, he said.