One2One m300/m301 (Motorola)

Mercury One2One M301

Mercury's One2One's first phone

The M300 was one of two phones Mercury offered to its first customers back in 1993. The M300 cost £300. The other, made by Siemens, was larger, heavier and cheaper, the M200.

The M300 was, of course, a restyled version of the Motorola flip phones, the 5080,5200 etc, but tweaked to work on Mercury's 1800Mhz PCN network. It was a pretty neat restyle. The M300 had Mercury's grey colour scheme with blue buttons. The flip did not cover all the buttons, but left the top three exposed and it carried the One2One and Mercury logos.

The M301 came along in 1994 and was smaller and lighter, but otherwise looked very similar.

Both of these models were upstaged by a much improved M400, which dispensed with the flip. However, the M301 soldiered on into 1997, by which time you could get one for just £10.

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Comments (13)

Andrew

Oh man, I was living and working in London at the time I got one of these in March or April of 1994. I loved it and thought I was so cool at the time. (Young and dumb) Although I tried not to use it too much in public because I thought it made me look like a right right ponce, like some yuppie flashing around with his poncey mobile phone. I had it for about 2 years and then during a skint period (Freeloading girlfriend) I couldn't pay my bill and I got cut off, and they wouldn't let me reinstate it back to the same plan so I switched to Orange because the plan I could get was a bit cheaper than Mercury's regular plan at that time.

I also got rid of the bloodsucking gf around that time.

There were people I worked with up until 2003 that still were grandfathered in on the old 'free evening and weekend calls' contracts and people used to sell them on ebay and in Loot for pretty decent money. Ahh fun days.

Pavel
In Poland we also had analogue cellular system in early 90s, i heard about some cancer cases probably caused by this factor, they were operated at 450 MHz and on low signal areas power of handsets was rising to 7W - vision from tv screen was dissapearing when this phone rang (some Motorola model)
Brian Robert Morrison
Thanks Stefanino it has now been 23 yrs and in a much pain as ever, I was 24yrs old when this phone gave me cancer in the neck behind my right ear and at base of my spine where I would clip my phone while I was working. Thanks for the information you have given to me I am going to look in to other cases like mine.
no name
trash phone! cant even take photos. Imma go buy an iphone now lol
Stefanino
Dear Mr B Mole 02/15/2018 and other Motorola 301 Mercury One2One subscribers. Sorry to hear about the Cancer and the very difficult 21 years. Dixons Queensway, nr. Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens opposite Whiteley's Department Store sold the Mercury OneOne Motorola 301 handset kit in a blue box, and the Cable & Wireless Company operated the network. The C & W company made a special offer of free calls to landline numbers in certain areas and the United States of North America manufacturer has probably not tested the Motorola 301 for such prolonged hand held use. The hands-free phone kit never became available and was not supplied to monthly subscribers. As it was free to call landlines on the M 3o1, long conversations were possible, which overheated the Motorola 301 handset used on the Mercury One2One network. At one point, I realised that the Motorola 301 was overheating in my right hand, close to my right ear & brain. So I discontinued use of the phone. The person to sue is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and successive Prime Ministers, at the International Court at the Hague, situated in the Kingdom of Netherland. Suing Dixons, Cable & Wireless, British Telecom plc. is dependent on the U.K. National Health Service accumulated data being made available to you. If you were using the phone as part of your work, your employer should be sued. The so called 'Self-Employement' of the United Kingdom is just a way for the UK Government to Get out of Employer Responsibilities, overworked and underpaid self employed, or Zero Hours Contracts, are all inventions of the Crooked Lawyers, like changing 'Secure' Tenancies to 'Assured' Tenancies. Best Wishes for the Legal Case, keep us posted here if you possibly can. I sincerely hope you win big.
B Mole
This phone gave me cancer back in 1997 would love to know who to sue as its f**ked the last 21 years of my life up
ShabZ
THIS WAS MY FIRST PHONE AND USEDIT FOR A GOOD 5 OR SIX YEARS ALTHOUGH I THINK IT GOT LOST SOMEWHERE IN MY MOVING ABOUT. APPARENTLY I STILL HAVE AN EXTERNAL MOTOROLA BATTERY CHARGER / DISCHARGER THAT I BOUGHT TO CHARGE THE EXTRA EXTENDED BATTERY TO USE WITH IT.USED TO ALTERNATE MY BATTRIES FOR THIS PHONE, BOTH THE ORIGINAL BATTERY ON IT PLUS THE EXTEDED VERSION OF IT.WHICH STILL MIGHT BE LYING AROUND SOMEWHERE.
Uncle
Real funky retro, man. That old brick done up piss elegant!
Nismos
There are so many people keeping old phones, will be many many years before they become valuable I think. Bit like the British jubilee crowns... Worth nothing.
andrew fucktard
I hav this phonee
Asker_Of_The_Queastions
Umm...Hi, this website does not make since, please add a kids thing. Thanks
matthew
hello id like to say that l have a motorola m301 and use it as my everyday handset the date today is 03/06/13 my wife spent ?1 for the phone at a car boot sale near to where we live and l had a good strong battery at home for a motorola 8700 that is stored away and placed the battery to the m301 and put a virgin sim into the phone useing the credit card type sim and hay presto!!! its full working and great signal the fun part is it has one2one on the body shell and Mercury and the handset is in the grey color, l do love my old vintage phones l have a great collection and in years to come they will be worth loads and they will come back as people like them as retro gifts ect anyhow thankyou for reading all the best kind regards Matthew .....East midlands .Nottinghamshire.
andy
i lov motorola.
 
   
Mobile phone history