Oribitel 902
Vodafone's first consumer GSM phone
- Date launched: 1993
- Network: GSM 900Mhz/1800Mhz
- Form: Candy bar with internal aerial
- Size: 62(w)x140(h)x27(d) mm
- Weight: 298g
- Standby time: 10.5hrs
- Cost new: £399 retail or £240 with Vodafone MetroDigital
- Can you use it today: Yes
Vodafone was the UK's first digital network provider. However, their original digital service, EuroDigital was expensive and was targeted at businessmen and women who regularly travelled to Europe. This changed in the Autumn of 1993 when Vodafone announced MetroDigital: a digital service for consumers.
With MetroDigital you had to nominate a home cell. Calls made from that cell would be cheapest. It was meant to be a home phone replacement. In practice this meant you could pay different charges in different rooms of your house. Outside of that cell calls cost double, essentially mobile calls from inside London. Going outside of the Capital pushed call charges to exorbitant levels.
Vodafone quickly abandoned the one cell approach, allowing the 'home cell' to be a cluster of adjacent cells.
The British-made Orbitel 902 told you which cell you were in. It displayed a STD area code and the name of the cell.
The phone was was ergonomically designed and performed well. However, it a feature which 'What Cellphone' called a 'lobe defroster'. On long calls the earpiece had a tendency to cook the user's ear! (1)
References
(1) Article by Bob Tomalski, 'The metro line' in What Cellphone, Spring 1994
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